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Meeting Africa’s data demand

A rendering of Vantage Data Center’s first facility in Johannesburg. (Image source: Vantage Data Centers)

The need for a robust data fabric in Africa is of paramount importance as the continent progresses in its digital transformation

As outlined in Africa Data Centres Association’s State of the African Data Centre Market report, Africa’s need for a robust data centre fabric is essential for reducing the North-South digital divide in a globalised economy and levelling the opportunity playing field so that users in Nairobi or Lagos can utilise cloud, blockchain and other digital tools with a similar level of comfort and security as those in Frankfurt or New Delhi. 

Local hosting infrastructure can help transform African enterprises and public service delivery and make them more competitive against global peers, and can enable local startups to leverage the digital tools they need.

Currently, the continent is only accountable for around 1% of the world’s co-location data centre supply, however growing internet penetration, a rapidly expanding population and the reasons listed above has meant that demand is increasing.

Read more about Africa’s growing data demand as well as the projects helping to meet this in the April issue of African Review here. 

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