Internet

Bayobab Kenya completes multi-million-shilling fibre network from Mombasa to Malaba, boosting connectivity across Kenya and East Africa. (Image source: Bayobab)

Bayobab Kenya, a division of Bayobab Group and the digital infrastructure arm of MTN Group, has announced the completion of a multi-million-shilling long-distance fibre network connecting Mombasa to Malaba and Busia

Connecting East Africa

This extensive fibre network extends to the Kenya-Uganda border, linking into Uganda and providing onward connectivity to Rwanda, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This development is set to revolutionise connectivity and enhance reliability in this crucial region. Following the route of Kenya Railway’s metre gauge railway line, the fibre spans over 1,000 kilometres on the Kenyan side, offering towns along the route access to the internet. Internet Service Providers aiming to expand or enhance connectivity in these areas can utilize Bayobab Kenya’s open-access long-distance fibre infrastructure as a high-capacity backbone.

In 2022, Bayobab Kenya launched the first phase of its National Long-Distance fibre running from Mombasa to Malaba along the Kenya Pipeline route. The new fibre route complements this existing infrastructure, providing crucial diversity and redundancy for internet services. The newly-launched route offers a unique alternative for carriers seeking network resilience, high-capacity backbones, or dark fibre along the route.

Bayobab Kenya’s forward-thinking projects align with Bayobab Africa’s 2023 accolade as the Best African Carrier, demonstrating the company’s commitment to delivering superior connectivity solutions. This initiative marks a transformative advancement in telecommunications infrastructure, bridging the digital divide across Kenya and Africa.

Sylvia Anampiu, managing director of Bayobab Kenya, expressed pride in this milestone project. “Our Mombasa-to-Malaba Fibre Project in Kenya is a testament to our vision for a connected and empowered country and continent. By connecting Mombasa to Malaba, we aim to create a seamless pathway to Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, and DRC, fostering economic development and growth across these countries."

“Our strategic investment in Kenya’s segment of the East-to-West Fibre Project underscores our dedication to pushing the boundaries of telecommunications infrastructure through our Ambition 2025 of building 135,000KM of proprietary fibre across Africa. This project is about connecting communities and businesses, creating opportunities, and delivering a modern connected life to more people across the continent. We are confident that this initiative will be a game-changer for connectivity in Kenya and beyond,” she added.

This new route represents a significant milestone in enhancing reliability and ensuring low-latency connectivity between the East and West coasts of Africa. It is a crucial step towards improving the digital economy, trade, and economic growth within the region. Additionally, it links landlocked countries to subsea cables at the port of Mombasa via the shortest route, offering a unique pathway to safeguard and strengthen services for Bayobab Kenya’s current and future customers.

Raxio Group launches DRC's largest Tier III data centre in Kinshasa, boosting digital transformation with US$30mn investment and 1.5MW capacity. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

In a significant step towards enhancing the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) growing influence in Africa's digital transformation, Raxio Group has officially launched its state-of-the-art data centre in Kinshasa 

This facility, the largest in the country, has earned Tier III accreditation from the international industry body, the Uptime Institute.

Named Raxio DRC1, the advanced data centre is supported by a US$30mn investment and marks a crucial milestone in the DRC’s National Digital Plan (Plan National du Numérique). This initiative aims to promote digital inclusion, stimulate private sector growth, and modernise public services through digitalization.

Situated in Limete, southeast of Kinshasa, the two-storey Raxio Data Centre covers an area of 1,542 square meters. It boasts a modern design capable of accommodating up to 400 racks and can consistently deliver 1.5MW of IT power to client equipment. Operating 24/7, the facility is strategically positioned along major fibre routes, offering top-tier colocation and connectivity services. Its Tier III certification is bolstered by multiple pathways for power and cooling systems, while the use of cutting-edge technology ensures high efficiency and a strong commitment to sustainability.

Construction of the project began in early 2023 and was completed in record time, reflecting Raxio’s established expertise in building data centre facilities across Africa. The rapid completion also underscores the support of government authorities in prioritising and accelerating essential national projects.

“The inauguration of our Kinshasa data centre marks a significant achievement for Raxio and a pivotal moment for the DRC's digital landscape,” said Robert Mullins, CEO of Raxio Group. “DRC is one of Africa’s largest and fastest-growing markets with an existing latent demand for digital products and services that is forecast to soar in the coming years. With this facility, we are providing the critical infrastructure essential to supporting the digital economy and enhancing connectivity – and we expect to expand our presence in DRC through additional capacity and new facilities in years to come. Our investment reflects unwavering confidence in the DRC's immense potential and our commitment to sustainable digital development across Africa.”

With the widest footprint of any data centre provider on the continent, Raxio's strategy is to address the significant demand for high-quality data infrastructure across Africa. Since opening its first data centre in Uganda in 2021, Raxio has expanded this year into Ethiopia and Mozambique. The launch of the DRC marks the opening of Raxio’s fourth facility this year with 1.5MW being the group’s largest Day 1 capacity to date.

Pan-African digital backbone

Raxio continues to see strong momentum behind the roll-out of its pan-African digital backbone. Appetite for data centre capacity is growing not just amongst local enterprises and the public sector, but increasingly from some of the world’s largest hyperscale Cloud Service Providers, Content Delivery Networks and Mobile Network Operators as they strengthen their networks and market presence on the continent.

The DRC launch aligns with the government's Plan National du Numerique to make expansive digitalisation a catalyst for economic growth, competitiveness and social inclusion, while enabling a range of public and private sector cloud-based digital services. The Provision of data centres is one of the key pillars of the government plan, improving the digital landscape through reduced latency for real-time applications and providing a reliable backbone for mobile and internet connectivity.

“Closing sub-Saharan Africa’s connectivity gap is no longer a pipe dream – it is happening now and we are extremely proud to be among the key enablers that are driving digital inclusion,” said Yannick Sukakumu, general manager Raxio DRC. “The commitment and pragmatism of the government has been a key enabling factor in spurring our project from inception to completion in record time and stands as an inspiration for the wider region in grasping this incredible opportunity for a broad-based digital economy expansion. We are looking forward to welcoming customers into an international-standard data centre environment.”

Siemon’s new guide helps data centre professionals design robust AI-ready network infrastructure, addressing the unique demands of ML and generative AI. (Image source: Siemon)

Siemon, a global leader in network infrastructure solutions, has introduced a new guide aimed at assisting data center professionals in making informed decisions regarding network infrastructure to support current and future AI advancements

The guide offers valuable insights for a wide range of users, from AI cloud service providers needing power and cooling solutions for high-density rack configurations in large high-performance computing (HPC) clusters, to large enterprises aiming to integrate AI infrastructure into existing on-site or colocation data centres.

Addressing the unique demands of data- and compute-intensive machine learning (ML) and generative AI applications, which require extremely high bandwidth and low latency, the guide recommends AI-ready fibre solutions. These include high-density, end-to-end singlemode and multimode MTP fibre systems that support ultra low-loss (ULL) transmission up to 800G and beyond for compute and storage fabrics. Additionally, the guide suggests considering direct attach cables (DACs) and active optical cables (AOCs) for high-speed, low-latency point-to-point connections within back-end AI clusters, catering to Ethernet, RoCE, and InfiniBand networks.

Siemon’s new guide also provides advice on suitable cabling configurations in order to meet the higher power and cooling demands of GPU-based servers and it discusses the latest developments surrounding Infiniband and Ethernet, suggesting connectivity options that support both technologies.

“As data centres gear up for AI, users need innovative, robust network infrastructure solutions that will help them to easily design, deploy, and scale back-end, front-end, and storage network fabrics for complex high-performance computing (HPC) AI environments,” says vice-president sales for India, the Middle East and Africa at Siemon. “We have created this guide to provide data centre professionals with a detailed overview of what they need for the design, delivery, and day-to-day operation of AI networks.”

Schneider Electric targets Africa's growing data centre market with a dual strategy, engaging end-users and channel partners for expanded opportunities. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

Schneider Electric, a leading provider of energy equipment and solutions, has recognized a prime opportunity emerging from the rising demand for data centre facilities in Africa

This surge in demand is attributed to increased Internet penetration and a growing digital economy, setting the stage for East and West Africa to become key market hubs. Schneider Electric sees this as a chance to support partners and resellers in the region through a dual strategy: engaging directly with end-user data centers and driving sales opportunities via channel partners, thereby stimulating demand.

“Schneider Electric is a channel-driven business, with about 70% of our order fulfilment done through the channel,” stated Rohan de Beer, end user sales director – Anglophone Africa at Schneider Electric. “The growth in the African data centre space is therefore an opportunity for our partners to upskill themselves and strengthen their relationships with the local data center end users. Connectivity on the continent is growing massively, the economy is becoming a bit more stable overall, so this provides the environment for our resellers and distributors to further grow these data center opportunities for themselves.”

Historically, the company has relied solely on external channels to develop market prospects, which sometimes led to missed opportunities and shared market space with competitors.

“With the two-pronged approach, we can get closer to the end user for two reasons – to influence the technology and innovation at an earlier stage in the lifecycle of a project and then to also improve our share of the wallet at the customer base,” he explained. “Obviously, we would then take these opportunities and share them with our channel and fulfil them through the channel.

“So, it's a direct cut of the pie, but it’s still fulfilled through the channel. We are not going to increase our direct business, that's not the idea. The idea is to increase our share in the wallet while fulfilling orders through the channel and this approach seems to be working great.”

Power to partners

Schneider Electric is also implementing specific initiatives to empower its channel partners with the skills needed for deploying advanced solutions in the data center market.

“There are a couple of things that we are doing,” de Beer added. “Firstly, this is where our channel programme that we revised and relaunched this year plays a big role. So, partners who want to participate in this influx of business can register on the partner portal and get free access to online training from a sales perspective and the pre-sales solutions side. This includes all our technical tools, videos and training.

“Secondly, we also drive instructor-led solutions and design training sessions through the Anglophone cluster. We have so far completed East, West, and South in the first half of the year. That is purely focused on technical training solutions for our channel partners and distributors.”

He noted that the next step will involve hosting focused end-user and channel executive roundtables and customer events to further equip the channel and end users with the necessary skills.