The Raxio Group (Raxio), a premier pan-African data centre developer and operator, has announced that it is investing and establishing ‘Raxio Angola’, the first state-of-the-art, carrier neutral, Tier III data centre in the country
Raxio Angola is the latest facility to be part of Raxio’s fast expanding network of interconnected carrier neutral, Tier III data centres across the African continent.
Angola’s digital and telecommunications ecosystems have been developing rapidly, with the country now reaching an internet penetration rate of ~27%. New connectivity providers have been entering the market and others are actively enhancing their networks, footprint and services. Together, these factors provide a growth opportunity to become a strategic connectivity hub in the region, including significant cross border traffic with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where Raxio is already building a state-of-the-art facility in Kinshasa. With no existing carrier-neutral, Tier III certified data centres, Raxio Angola will be a key interlink between terrestrial and submarine connectivity in the country, serving both local and international demand.
Set to be commissioned in February 2024, Raxio Angola will be the seventh data centre in Raxio’s portfolio of facilities in Africa. The facility will be located in the Cacuaco district, on the outskirts of Luanda in close proximity to submarine cable landing sites and not far from the CBD of Luanda. Land has already been secured, allowing Raxio to build a facility to deliver more than 6MW of IT capacity. Raxio’s prime real estate site in Cacuaco benefits from access to reliable grid power, terrestrial fibre connectivity and road infrastructure, and located strategically to serve as a suitable location for both primary and disaster recovery needs of customers. This latest facility in Angola is being developed in collaboration with carefully selected international and local contractors to Raxio’s tried and tested standards of excellence.
Once commissioned, Raxio Angola will deliver an ideal colocation environment for local, regional and international enterprises, content delivery networks, cloud service providers; enabling cross connection between local and international carriers; and providing a series of value-added services.
Raxio Angola will offer its customers an optimised environment for their IT equipment in a state-of-the-art “metro-edge” facility built consistently with Raxio’s standard design principles applied across its portfolio. The data centre will be fully equipped with industry leading technology solutions that not only ensure full redundancy and maximised uptime, but also optimise power consumption and energy efficiency. This multi-megawatt facility will set a new standard of data centre services in the country, with the ability to accommodate the highest power density equipment at the lowest power usage effectiveness ratio (PUE) in the region.
Robert Mullins, CEO of Raxio Group said, "Our decision to build Angola’s first Tier III carrier neutral facility highlights our commitment to our strategy to deliver the vital digital infrastructure needed on the African continent. With new connectivity solutions arriving and the continued evolution of the digital ecosystem in the region, we will continue to build larger hyper-scale ready facilities across a wider geographic footprint to meet the demand. Angola has a growing demand for connectivity and related services. It is also geographically placed to become a connectivity hub in the region, making it an important market for our growing portfolio. As with all our facilities, Raxio Angola is being developed in strict adherence to our ESG standards, driving a positive impact through both direct and indirect creation of highly skilled jobs, and a facility that is built and operated to the highest international environmental standards."
