The upsurge in the number of data centres in the country is projected to lower the cost of data locally, African technology infrastructure company-iColo has said.
There has been an increase in the number of cables landing on the Kenyan Coast, which has driven up demand for colocation facilities.
A colocation facility, or colo, is a data center facility in which a business can rent space for servers and other computing hardware.
According to the firm, which designs, builds and operates state-of-the-art carrier-neutral data centers, the latest developments have prompted it to expand operations with a new Sh2 billion data centre.
CEO Ranjith Cherickel says the centre will allow up to four undersea cables to terminate at the facility, which will in turn reduce data costs locally.
As demand rises for cloud storage, heavy content streaming, e-commerce platforms, e-learning apps, telehealth systems, fintech innovation and online businesses, the new cable is expected to offer additional broadband to the national fibre backbone network.
“As more systems come in, there is more competition more volume and generally pricing going down so in the next ten years’ data won’t be any expensive,” said Cherickel.
The continued growth in consumer demand for connectivity and data could unlock new markets for co-location data centres, content development networks and Over-The-Top service providers in the country, he noted.
Kenya is expected to attract billions worth of investments into its data centre market on the back of the continent’s growing internet economy.
Investments in submarine cables in the market have increased over the past few years.
Major investors include telecommunication providers and hyper-scale operators working to create strong fiber connectivity and connections across the country.
The company has also added that it is committed to the sustainability aspect of data centres, having implemented a Solar Energy system for the Nairobi and Mombasa data centres.
Kenya is witnessing the growing adoption of digital services such as cloud, big data, and IoT driving the demand for data centers in the region.
However, most facilities in Kenya are based in Nairobi, and with the shift now focusing on Mombasa.
“In the coming years, the market is expected to witness data center investments in other cities, with Mombasa becoming a popular hub. We will open our third colocation facility in Mombasa,”Cherickel said.
Colocation service providers witnessed a strong uptake for their data center spaces by existing customers, owing to the growth of Covid -19 induced demand.
