NBOX1: East Africa's premier hypercloud data Centre

Schneider Electric, a leader in digital transformation for energy management and automation, has joined forces with Nairobi-based IXAfrica Data Centres to unveil East Africa’s largest and first hypercloud data centre

Known as ‘NBOX1,’ this Tier 3+ facility is now operational and offers a carrier-neutral, AI-ready environment. It stands as the most advanced digital infrastructure in East Africa for cloud, colocation, and connectivity, designed to attract hyperscale and internet customers with a user experience on par with North America and Western Europe.

Future-ready data centre

The NBOX1 launch is supported by Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure for Data Centres architecture, ensuring maximum resilience, uptime, cost efficiency, enhanced security, and alignment with IXAfrica’s sustainability goals.

The new data centre, backed by a US$50mn investment from leading firm Helios, is situated in Africa’s burgeoning technology hub, the ‘Digital Savannah,’ serving over 300 million people and fostering innovation with its skilled workforce and diverse services.

Snehar Shah, CEO of IXAfrica, remarked, “Kenya is a hypercloud-ready region with advanced cloud adoption propensities, a digitally savvy ecosystem, access to diverse internet fibre connectivity, high-availability and low-carbon sources of power. This all sits within a country offering a stable regulatory and political environment, and a strong economy forecast to grow 5.2% in 2024.”

To meet the critical requirement for dependable IT operations, IXAfrica selected Schneider Electric for their power train solution, including power protection and distribution equipment, transformers, MV and LV switchgear, and a basic BMS for monitoring. Schneider Electric collaborated with local consultants Prisma Techniques and ensured compliance with IEC standards and local grid requirements, considering Kenya’s unique environmental conditions.

Ifeanyi Odoh, Schneider Electric country president in East Africa, stated, “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% uptime guarantee.”

With renewable energy sources introducing variability, the integration of lithium-ion batteries with the Galaxy VX UPS addresses challenges associated with supply stability.

Designed as a ‘Data Centre of the Future,’ NBOX1 benefits from Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure for Data Centres, which enhances performance, resilience, and resource efficiency while supporting IXAfrica’s sustainability goals through energy savings and reduced CO2 emissions.

Mouna Essa Egh, secure power vice-president for Middle East & Africa, commented, “We believe that sustainable practices are essential for the future of data centres, and we are proud to partner with organizations like IXAfrica to create environmentally conscious and innovative digital habitats for the evolving technological landscape.”

“We have a very strategic relationship with Schneider Electric – in fact, our new Nairobi campus site is built on land formerly part of Schneider’s complex, and the power engineering for the site was designed by Schneider’s local partners. NBOX1 is sustainable by design, and our goal is to ‘Keep it Africa’ - our switchgear and panelware were all manufactured by Schneider Electric on our own doorstep,” shah added. 

“We’re delighted to partner with Schneider Electric, a company that not only shares our ethos and passion for the environment but is also committed to ensuring that IXAfrica and its clients meet their operational and sustainability goals,” shah concluded.