AI adoption is set to soar across sub-Saharan Africa, driving exponential growth in data generation and processing requirements. For major cloud operators, OTTs, content service providers (CSPs), telcos/carriers, metro operators, ISPs, government departments and large enterprises, the question of capacity raises new financial and infrastructural challenges. So says Dr Ayotunde Coker, CEO of Open Access Data Centres (OADC), which positions itself as Africa’s fastest-growing vendor neutral and open access data centre operator.
To support AI strategies, organisations should partner with colocation data centres that have the infrastructure and scale to underpin the AI journey, rather than attempting to scale up their capacity in-house, he says. “Colocation is more sustainable and allows organisations to harness AI and adapt faster,” he notes.
Dr Coker says building new on-premises data centres to cope with the demands of AI would prove too costly and time consuming for most organisations, causing them to fall behind in the innovation race and incur ongoing running costs and challenges.
“AI requires complex infrastructure for large enterprises to build and support. Commissioning and building an AI data centre could take a year or more – killing enterprise agility. It also requires specialist resources to manage – something not every organisation has. The best approach is to partner with a colocation partner that can provide the necessary advanced infrastructure, comprehensive peering points and interconnectivity for efficient infrastructure for content distribution and cloud environments,” he says. “With colocation, you pay as you go and pay as you grow, and there’s someone else worrying about service levels and uptime. So the costs and business case for colocation are indeed compelling. Enterprises gain agility in innovation and competitiveness.”
He adds that agentic AI, which operates at point of consumption, is better delivered at the ‘edge’ for a better customer experience. “This means organisations also need access to edge data centres,” he says. “OADC’s extensive data centre footprint includes over 30 edge data centres distributed across South Africa to support organisations across the country.”
Optimal power efficiency
Power is a critical consideration in the AI era, Dr Coker notes: the International Energy Agency says that where traditional data centres require around 10-25 megawatts (MW) of power, demand by hyperscale AI could exceed 100MW for the same footprint.
“Powering on-premises data centres can be inefficient and costly. Most organisations lack the resources to optimise cooling systems, maintain ideal power usage effectiveness ratios or invest in innovative energy management technologies. The result is wasted electricity, higher carbon emissions and inflated operational costs,” he says. “In contrast, colocation facilities invest heavily in energy-efficient design and alternative energy, and also have the economies of scale to negotiate optimal pricing with utilities.”
Dr Coker explains that colocation providers like OADC achieve higher efficiency by consolidating multiple clients' infrastructure under one roof. “This, together with their investment in state-of-the-art, centralised power distribution systems and advanced cooling technologies that may not be feasible for a single enterprise to deploy on-premises, results in better energy efficiency. This efficiency is demonstrated through lower power usage effectiveness (PUE) – meaning most of the energy drawn is used by the IT equipment itself, not wasted on support infrastructure,” he says.
Another challenge for on-premises server rooms is inefficient hot/cold aisle containment due to their having been designed for low-density, outdated equipment.
“Carrier-neutral colocation data centres are engineered from the ground up with highly optimised airflow management, contained hot/cold aisles and the ability to support high-density server racks,” Dr Coker says. “This precise environmental control ensures cooling capacity is directed exactly where needed, drastically reducing energy waste.”
Sustainable for life
Dr Coker says by outsourcing the physical infrastructure such as the building, power and cooling, companies avoid the recurring embodied carbon costs of constructing, renovating and decommissioning their own data centres.
“The colocation data centre provider creates this footprint once, for a shared resource used by multiple clients. This leads to a lower net environmental impact per unit of compute. Companies receive the cost and resource efficiency benefits of 'right-sizing' since they only pay for the power and space they actually use,” he says.
Governed and compliant
Another compelling reason to use a colocation data centre is governance and compliance, Dr Coker says. “There are significant upfront and ongoing compliance and governance requirements for certifications relating to information security, data integrity and secure infrastructure, such as ISO 27001 and PCI DSS for banking and financial services enterprises. In addition, stakeholders require ESG compliance, targets and progress to be monitored and reported for data centres. OADC data centres already have these certifications and related governance in place, and businesses can be confident that such facilities are compliant and secure,” he says.
“Agile enterprises don't build data centres, they colocate. It's international best practice. CIOs don't get kudos for building a data centre, they get kudos for providing innovation and technology capability at speed, so it’s important they find the best partner to help them do that. OADC has all the scale, infrastructure and expertise organisations need for agile innovation and enterprise competitiveness to harness AI, with interconnect providers and ecosystems ready to go,” he concludes.
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