African data centre capacity is set to grow 265% in the 5 years 2021-2026.
What does this look like?
Xalam Analytics report ‘๐๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ง๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ฏ ๐๐ข๐ต๐ข ๐๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ ๐๐ช๐จ๐ข๐ธ๐ข๐ต๐ต’ is a great read on the future of the African data centre landscape.
Some key points that caught my attention:
๐น ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ ๐ช ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ง ๐น๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฑ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ญ-๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฒ, over 2.5 times the current IT load!
๐น ๐ด๐ฑ% ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ง ๐น๐ผ๐ฎ๐ฑ ๐๐ถ๐น๐น ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฆ๐ผ๐๐๐ต ๐๐ณ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ, ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฎ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ก๐ถ๐ด๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฎ. However, across only ~25 facilities, which suggests this will be at the larger campus type data centres, ie for hyperscalers.
๐น ๐ณ๐ฌ% ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ฑ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐ป๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ถ๐น๐น ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐๐ถ๐น๐ ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ณ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฎ, with an average size of 1.1MW, which suggests we will be building lots of edge looking data centres across Africa.
Does this fit your data centre strategy? If not, how do you see if playing out…
