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Data centre advisory — Africa & the Middle East
Build in the right place, at the right price, with the right team.
Independent technical due diligence, feasibility and design management for the investors, funds and operators building Africa's data centres — a sole-operator practice, 15 years focused on this market across 16+ countries.
What I do
Three things, done well
Data centres are costly and complex to build. I give investors and operators a clear technical picture — of what they are buying, backing, or building.
Technical due diligence
Independent technical review of a site or portfolio for PE investors and infrastructure funds — capacity, condition, capex and opex exposure and risk, and how each bears on value. My flagship service.
Feasibility
Pre-feasibility and feasibility to enter a new market or expand a footprint — market analysis, site assessment, design concepts, build costs, operations, and input to your commercial model.
Design management
Leading or supporting delivery across many stakeholders — brief, procurement, design leadership, process and controls — keeping a complex programme on time and on budget.
Also supporting
Market analysis & entry strategySite selection & red-flag reportsIndependent design reviewUptime Institute & TIA-942 gap / Tier assessment
◆ Accredited Tier Designer — Uptime Institute◆ MBA — Manchester Business School
Selected work
Projects
A sample of recent engagements, anonymised where client confidentiality applies.
Technical due diligence
Hyperscale facility, Qatar
In-depth TDD across design documentation, construction quality and operational procedures, resulting in a phased improvement action plan.
Technical due diligence · buy-side
PE investor, Morocco
Moroccan market review plus technical, operational and financial due diligence on target sites, feeding the client's investment assessment.
Technical due diligence · DFI
Finance institution, Nigeria
Technical review of an operator's portfolio — design, operations, expansion plans and capex/opex — used to inform a majority-shareholding offer.
Technical due diligence · multi-site
Global colocation operator, South Africa
Led a multi-site condition audit and due diligence, with a multi-year replacement strategy and total-cost-of-ownership analysis.
Feasibility · technical advisory
DFI technical advisory, East Africa
Technical advisor to a development finance institution, supporting several start-ups entering the East African data centre space — feasibility studies, market analysis, and input to their commercial models.
Feasibility · new entrant
New-market entry, West Africa
Feasibility input for an established ICT and equipment supplier moving into data centres — strategy, go-to-market, design concepts, build costs and operations.
Design management
Pan-African operator, Senegal
Led project development for a new facility — establishing brief and requirements, procuring the consulting team, and leading design, process and controls.
Design & delivery
Colocation campus, Johannesburg
Project Director and Design Manager delivering four data halls (three colocation, one hyperscale) to 10 MW final IT capacity, concept to completion.
Site selection
Multi-market expansion, Africa
Led a team screening 14 locations across Africa against power, connectivity, risk and planning — producing red-flag reports for the business case.
How an engagement runs
A clear, evidence-led process
1
Brief
Scope, the questions to answer, and the decision the work supports.
2
Site & data
Site visit, document review, and stakeholder input.
3
Analysis
Technical assessment against standards, demand and risk.
4
Report
A clear, decision-ready report — typically issued as PDF.
About
Heath Andersen
I am a mechanical engineer with 28 years in the construction industry — the last 15 focused on data centres — working as a technical advisor, project director and design manager. My practice now centres on technical due diligence, feasibility and design management.
I've delivered data centre work across South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal, Botswana, Ethiopia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait — with colocation and edge operators, hyperscalers, enterprises, banks, development finance institutions and private equity — and understand what each stakeholder needs across the data centre value chain.
Earlier I held leadership roles at Arup, Ramboll and Bassett (now AECOM), spanning Australia, the UK, South-East Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
Markets
South AfricaKenyaNigeriaMoroccoSenegalBotswanaEthiopiaUAESaudi ArabiaQatarKuwait
At a glance
- Practice
- Sole-operator advisory
- Focus
- TDD · feasibility · design
- Experience
- 28 yrs · 15 in data centres
- Markets
- 16+ countries
- Clients
- Funds · operators · banks
- Deliverables
- Decision-ready PDF reports
Data centre operators
Africa Data CentresEquinixNTTPAIXAWSNlightenInternet Solutions
Enterprise
IBMFNB
Investors & funds
DPIHelios Investment PartnersHAUSAFC
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