By kester Omu
A combination of expensive connectivity and epileptic power supply have been identified as the major constraints hindering the successful uptake of data centre services and the participation of more operators on the African continent.
This position was taken by experts at the just concluded Capacity Africa Conference, which held in Kampala, Uganda last week.
For MainOne, owner of MDXi, acclaimed leading data centre provider in the West African, the Capacity Africa conference poses an opportunity for its platform to showcase to the community, its commitment to enabling a robust digital ecosystem with its investments across the region.
MDXi, which was represented by its Product Manager, Vremudia Oghene-Ruemu, noted that the growth of a Data Centre in the African Continent is explosive, despite some limitation, especially in the areas of expensive connectivity and epileptic power supply, which has forced operators to resort to providing power for themselves.
“Expensive connectivity and epileptic power supply as significant constraints to the uptake of data centre services and the participation of more operators on the continent,” he said.
Oghene-Ruemu asserted that despite the limitations in Nigeria, MDXi has continuously innovated to surmount the power and connectivity challenges peculiar to the country. According to him, MDXi is the only operator in Nigeria with direct and dedicated connection to the national grid guaranteeing 24/7 Power availability to customers beyond any other in-country data centre provider. “As internet traffic increases and performance improves, the opportunities for data center growth are enormous given the upsurge in the use of ICT services and a largely young population immersed in content creation and consumption. MDXi is well positioned to handle this demand and has expanded its colocation offering to Ghana, while building another Tier III data centre close to the Sagamu- Lagos Interchangeoff the Lagos-Ibadan expressway,” he noted.
Oghene-Ruemu also highlighted the role MDXi plays in ensuring open access and carrier neutral connectivity to colocation customers hosted in its Lekki and Accra data centres. “With a target of 80 per cent of internet traffic exchanged locally by 2020, MDXi’s hosting of the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), and its new Open Connect interconnection service will facilitate the increased interconnection, collaboration and peering for telecom operators, ISPs and content providers within its data center. This service would enhance local internet performance, lower costs and minimize traffic bottlenecks for Internet traffic in Nigeria and West Africa.
Meanwhile, in acknowledgement of its pioneering work, MainOne’s CEO, Ms. Funke Opeke was recognized with the “People’s Choice Award” for her achievements in expanding data centre facilities and connectivity in the West of Africa at this year’s event.
Since inception, MDXi as a subsidiary of MainOne has established a strong reputation as the preferred provider of data centre and interconnection services in Nigeria. The company owns and operates the Lekki Data Centre; the only Tier III certified colocation facility in West Africa with combined PCI DSS, ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certifications.
The facility has been recognized at several awards since inception and in 2015 received the Customer Value Leadership Award from Frost and Sullivan in recognition of best practice in the Nigerian Data Centre Industry. MDXi was also a finalist in the 2016 Datacenter Dynamics (DCD) EMEA Internet Data Center category award.