Mounting fears around the availability of power is impacting on the growth of data centres in the Africa.
So said Gareth Mellon, team leader: information and communication technologies at Frost & Sullivan Africa, in a keynote address during the ITWeb Data Centres: The Next Frontier 2015 event at The Forum, Bryanston, this morning.
As data centres continue to mature globally, there is both complexity and opportunity in Africa, he pointed out.
According to Mellon, rising electricity costs and regulatory environments are threatening the development of data centres in Africa. There are mounting fears around the availability of electricity on the continent, he added.
"In Africa's data centres, reliable power is always a big restraint - even in SA, just to have a tier-four data centre is difficult due organisations' reliance on Eskom."
The power provision on the continent will always be an issue - companies will need to have big investment in power to maintain and operate a data centre, said Mellon.
The power complexity is a constant challenge in SA and the rest of Africa; however, significant investments are beginning to address power issues.
For example in Kenya, there has been an improvement in the power space in the past five years, with big emphasis from the government to encourage investment in renewable energy.
Mellon pointed out there is opportunity in the cloud for businesses if they are willing to use this space - they don't necessarily need to have localised data centres.
Another challenge impacting the uptake of data centres in the continent is the uncertainty in the regulatory environment - specifically clarity on the data security requirements, he said.
Africa is still in the growth phase of data centre uptake, so the industry expansion will be relevant for a number of years, he added.
As a result, the data industry has still to become accustomed to the market growth potential and also look to take advantage of potential opportunities on the rest of the continent, said Mellon.
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