DEVELOP & INVEST
AFRICA ’ S DATA CENTRE BOOM
AFRICA ’ S ENORMOUS APPETITE FOR DIGITAL DATA IS DRIVING DEMAND – AND OPPORTUNITY – FOR DATA CENTRE DEVELOPMENT .
22 D E V E L O P M E N T
You may have noticed that we ’ ve all been using the internet a lot more than we used to . The global shifts towards remote working , online learning , cloud-based business operations and streaming entertainment – all of which were gathering steam before 2020 happened – have been propelled forward by the local lockdowns of COVID-19 . That spells opportunity for developers who can meet the growing demand for South Africa ’ s internet backbone infrastructure needs .
Growing data demand
Amazon famously opened its first African Cloud data centre in South Africa in April 2020 ( though the event may have gotten lost in other headlines ). Since then , global tech giants like Microsoft , Google and Digital Realty have also made significant investments in the continent – and specifically in South Africa – to meet the growing demand for colocation and local connectivity .
Colocation centres – also known as ‘ carrier hotels ’ or just ‘ colos ’ if you ’ re cool – are data centres that make equipment , space and bandwidth available for rental to retail customers .
It ’ s a rapidly growing market . The local data capacity provided by these facilities means faster connection speeds and smoother