iXAfrica Data Centres has been featured in the August issue of Data Centre Magazine.
In this exclusive interview, Guy Willner and Clement Martineau discussed sustainability, hyperscale infrastructure, and bringing the Big Edge to emerging and underserved markets.
“People talk a lot about the edge, and the idea I’m pushing a lot is what I call The Big Edge,” said Willner, a 20 year veteran of data centre build outs throughout Europe, Russia, and Africa. Willner is the co-founder and Chairman of both IXcellerate and iXAfrica. “The edge is a train station in Northampton – a drop off place for Netflix or whomever; the Big Edge is Lagos, the capital of Nigeria with a population of 210mn people. It’s all the cities around the world with more than a million people but without the digital infrastructure to match.”
“The campus is tailor-made for hyperscale clients,” said Martineau, co-founder of iXAfrica and the company’s Director of Operations. “We are almost done with the shell construction and are entering the fit-out phase, bringing in all the equipment, from chillers, servers, and switch gears, to power and backup generators. We will most-likely be one of the biggest data centres in Africa – the biggest in East Africa by far – when the project is completed.”
Harry Menear, Editor at Data Centre Magazine, said: “Sitting down with Guy and Clem was a thoroughly illuminating experience. They’re both industry veterans with a great deal of passion, both for their ongoing project and the East African data centre industry as a whole.”
He added: “We were also fortunate to be able to partner with Future-Tech, the data centre consultancy that helped design, build, and outfit iXAfrica’s Nairobi campus. I got to have a really good conversation with their CEO, James Wilman, whose experience as a designer and builder of data centres in Kenya specifically has been a huge boon to the project.”
About iXAfrica Data Centres
iXAfrica Data Centres in Nairobi, Kenya is East Africa’s First and Largest Hyper-scale Carrier-neutral, AI-ready Data Centre and the latest digital habitat for cloud, colocation, and connectivity. iXAfrica provides world-class and highly resilient Data Centre infrastructure to create a vital part of the internet backbone of East Africa. With a Nairobi Campus (NBOX1) overall design capacity of 22.5MW, iXAfrica has the largest Data Centre project in the Greater East African region serving a total population of 300 million people. The campus is situated next to the main fiber optic communications arteries and is in close proximity to major and resilient electrical connections, capable of delivering high-availability and low-carbon power. Over 90% of Kenya’s electricity is generated from renewable/clean energy sources.
About Data Centre Magazine
Data Centre Magazine is a global source for news, in-depth features and expert commentary relating to every facet of the modern data centre industry and its role in the world today. Visit our site for daily updates, breaking news and analysis.
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