Africa Data Centres, part of the Cassava Technologies group, has been named the latest partner for the London Internet Exchange (LINX), marking a significant step in establishing the East African interconnection hub, LINX Nairobi. The collaboration follows a strategic partnership agreement between the two entities last month to ensure growth and opportunities across new African markets, bolstering connectivity and digitisation efforts.
LINX Nairobi, set to commence operations in the upcoming weeks, will be East Africa’s premier multi-site Internet Exchange Point (IXP), offering redundancy and network resilience. Designed to reflect LINX’s platforms in the UK and the US, LINX Nairobi places Kenya in an advantageous position to serve the entire East Africa region, given its rapidly expanding fibre connectivity and submarine cable network that extends to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
With the new partnership, customers based at Africa Data Centre’s Nairobi facility (NBO1) will have direct access to the new LINX Nairobi peering community through a single cross-connect. These customers will also benefit from added services such as round-the-clock support and portal access from LINX. Furthermore, networks connecting to LINX Nairobi from any data centre location will be able to establish peering arrangements, fostering a robust digital ecosystem and ensuring that traffic remains local.
Head of Global Engagement for LINX, Nurani Nimpuno, said, “With LINX Nairobi, we are creating a hub not only for Kenya but for all of East Africa. The rapidly growing region has a huge demand for low latency, high-speed, improved interconnectivity. LINX Nairobi will serve local networks, attract international Internet providers and hyperscalers, and enable connections for all networks co-located at Africa Data Centres.”
Africa Data Centres CEO, Tesh Durvasula, highlighted the significance of the new Point of Presence (PoP) from LINX in the NBO1 facility, stating it would offer customers an increased array of interconnection options. Durvasula also noted the company’s strong growth and momentum, emphasising the importance of interconnection and peering options in strengthening the digital ecosystem. He underscored the critical role of an effective interconnection strategy for global businesses, as it guarantees efficient workload distribution across the entire infrastructure, ultimately driving an integrated and resilient network.
Durvasula concluded, “This PoP is just one more way in which Africa Data Centres is helping businesses across Africa connect to the rest of the world while keeping their data within their own borders.” The LINX partnership underscores the growth and momentum of Africa Data Centres as they continue to facilitate digital connectivity across the continent.
