Africa Data Centres building new Lagos Data Centre

Africa DataCentres would be expanding its existing data centre floor space in Kigali Rwanda, Nairobi Kenya, Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa.

Set to launch in mid-2021, Africa Data Centres, a business of the recently renamed Liquid Intelligent Technologies has announced the soon-to-be-completed new data centre in Lagos Nigeria.

Located in the Eko Atlantic, the new data centre will be ready in phases and eventually have 10 MW power capacity.

This would be Africa Data Centres’ first foray into the western African sub-region having expanded its floor space in southern and Eastern Africa over the years.

“This region is hungry for digitisation and to pave the way for our hyperscale customers to deploy digitisation solutions to West Africa, Africa Data Centres’ construction of a 10-megawatt data centre in Lagos is well underway.” says Stephane Duproz, CEO of Africa Data Centres.

With its goal to be the premier data centre company in Africa, the company recently acquired Africa’s only Tier-IV data centre (located in Samrand Business Park South Africa) from Standard Bank and inherited Neotel’s Midrand data centre as part of Liquid Telecom’s acquisition of Neotel.

The Lagos build marks a significant step forward in Africa Data Centres’ ambitious long-term strategy to digitise Africa. The Nigerian data centre will form Africa Data Centres’ West African hub. As interconnection remains a priority, the company will be adding it to its network of data centres, which at present includes Johannesburg, Nairobi, Cape Town, Harare, and Kigali.

Nigeria is a key African market

Stephane Duproz

“Our expansion into Nigeria marks one aspect of the company’s growth on the continent,” says Duproz. “In response to demand generated by hyper scalers, key cloud operators and multinational enterprises already making use of our data centres, we have purchased the Samrand facility in South Africa and our key build in Midrand is underway. These same clients, who have trusted us with their expansions into Kenya and other African territories, have expressed their interest in bringing digitisation at scale to West Africa. Our leadership and best practice in data centre operations have made us the obvious choice in their expansion strategies.”

The creation of a digital hub is the beginning of digital transformation capabilities for the region. Naturally, says Duproz, multinational enterprises will wish to be housed under the same roof as our hyperscaler customers due to the lower latency enjoyed. As such, the combination of cloud providers and enterprises make these data centres marketplaces of the ecosystem – and, most importantly, he says, the base for the country’s digital and economic development. Additionally, keeping African data on African soil is another key consideration driving the demand for local data centre facilities. “We are proud to be ensuring that African data stays in Africa,” he says. 

The new LOS1 Lagos Data Centre would feature among other things:

  • 5 data halls with 2000m² of white space. World-class rated 3 data centre located in Lagos, in the special Economic Zone called Eko Atlantic City.
  • Maximum Client IT load of 5 MW (Megawatt)
  • Interconnection of all Africa Data Centres’ sites across the continent
  • Hot aisle and Cold aisle Containment done to maintain cooling efficiencies
  • Connected to 24/7 Security Operations Centre and Service Control Centre
  • Low-pressure gas system installed in the data halls triggered by double knock detection of fire alarm
  • Colocation: Private Cage, Secured racks, Power Metering and Cross Connects
  • HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning), Power and Building critical systems managed and monitored 24/7

Africa Data Centres has indicated that the Lagos build will spur the economy – creating job opportunities in various sectors. “The stimulus effect to the economy of digitisation is well documented and Nigeria is ready for this technology boon,” says Duproz. “Furthermore, our construction policy is to uplift the community as far as possible, employing local contractors and creating work opportunities within the communities we enter – so the job creation opportunities are realised at both grass-roots and high-tech levels.”

Having secured premium land in Lagos, Africa Data Centres has designed its latest data centre facility in line with environmental best practice, using grey, or non-potable water for cooling and utilising solar energy to offset its reliance on the grid.

The new data centre is expected to also serve as a POP for the local IXP – IXPN Lagos.

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Oluniyi D. Ajao
Oluniyi D. Ajao is an Internet Entrepreneur and Tech Enthusiast based in South Africa. Follow him on twitter @niyyie for more tech updates.

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