IXAfrica and Schneider Electric launch hyper-scale data centre in Kenya

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July 19, 2024
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2 min read
Data Centre
  • Kenyan-based IXAfrica data centres and Schneider Electric, a global energy management and automation provider, have partnered to launch a hyper-scale data centre to transform Kenya’s digital landscape by providing stable, reliable, and sustainable cloud services.
  • The new facility, NBOX1, is a Tier 3+ carrier-neutral data centre capable of supporting advanced AI applications. It is heralded as “the largest and most technologically advanced digital habitat for cloud, colocation, and connectivity in East Africa”.
  • The facility’s powered infrastructure is centred on Schneider Electric MV and LV switchgear to ensure stable and reliable cloud services renewably powered by Kenya’s grid.

Per Ifeanyi Odoh, Schneider Electric Country President in East Africa, “The solutions provided by Schneider Electric are engineered to support N+1 redundancy with four independent power trains, meeting IXAfrica’s immediate and long-term objectives, including design 1.25 PUE across the campus, as well as a 99.999 per cent uptime guarantee”.

Snehar Shah, IXAfrica CEO, acknowledged Kenya as a hyper-cloud-ready region due to its advanced cloud adoption, digitally savvy ecosystem, access to diverse internet fibre connectivity, and reliable and low-carbon power sources. 

He stated that the country offers a stable regulatory and political environment, and a strong economy forecast to grow 5.2 per cent in 2024.

Recently, IXAfrica has been expanding its footprint in the Kenyan infrastructure market. Its Nairobi Campus One has been under development since early 2021 with a $50 million capital investment from Helios, an investment firm. 

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In August 2023, IXAfrica signed a deal with real estate developer Tilisi Developments to acquire 11 acres of prime land to build a second data centre campus in Nairobi.

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The African data centre sector has witnessed a boom in recent times with Kenya, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa at the forefront. The Kenya data centre market is expected to reach a value of 440 million by 2029 from a value of $227 million in 2023, growing at a CAGR of 11.66% from 2023-2029.
In May 2024, Microsoft and G42, an artificial intelligence (AI) firm based in the United Arab Emirates, announced $1 billion in digital investments in Kenya leading to G42 collaborating with local partners to build a cutting-edge data centre campus powered by renewable geothermal energy and water conservation technology.

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