New CEO explains how Open Access Data Centres is digitising South Africa
Open Access Data Centres (OADC) is a key enabler of Africa’s digital ecosystem.
It is committed to supporting cloud operators, content providers, the wholesale community, and major enterprises in extending their global reach and operations.
OADC’s newly appointed CEO Dr Ayotunde Coker talks about the company’s plans in South Africa.
Dr Coker explains how OADC’s new data centre offering contributes to Africa’s digitisation journey and highlights the opportunities in the local market.
1. What attracted you to the CEO position at Open Access Data Centres?
Many things were attractive about the role. Key for me was the opportunity to lead the construction of the architecture that I believe will transform Africa’s digitisation journey.
We have a clear opportunity to leap-frog other parts of the world by creating a unique tiered ecosystem of world-class, customer-centric, carrier-neutral data centres.
From core hyperscale data centres to mid-range regional facilities and smaller edge data centres – we are decentralising the cloud and enabling content delivery to the point of use of the consumer.
We can also move at pace, rapidly rolling out a transformational digital infrastructure agenda.
I joined a world-class leadership team at WIOCC with an excellent track record and vision.
2. As a new entrant into what is already a competitive data centre market in South Africa, what sets Open Access Data Centres apart?
It’s a very important part of a bigger story.
As part of the WIOCC Group – which immediately offers a great pedigree and an excellent starting point and DNA – we also have access to comprehensive, multi-carrier, hyperscale interconnectivity throughout Sub-Saharan Africa and into key global hubs.
OADC is leveraging this open interconnectivity, together with the vibrant multi-carrier network ecosystems it is establishing at each of its facilities, to provide a comprehensive offering to customers requiring digital infrastructure solutions in Africa.
3. What else is OADC bringing to the market?
We’ve assembled and continue to grow a great team with an extensive track record in the global and African digital infrastructure industry.
We are innovating not only in the delivery of the core-to-edge infrastructure that is supporting 5G rollout and improved end-user experiences, but also in other areas of the business, including field team management and application of Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Finally, our focus is and will continue to be on delivery efficiency, operational excellence, and outstanding client satisfaction.
4. How has the development of its data centre market contributed to Africa’s digitisation journey to date?
In recent years, we’ve seen significant investment going into large, core data centres in major urban centres in the most developed markets – with South Africa leading the way and Nigeria then Kenya following behind.
All three markets are seeing significant uptake by global cloud operators and content distribution networks – while the availability of high-quality colocation facilities is leading the rest of the wholesale community and an increasing number of enterprises to turn to adopting third-party colocation services.
Some smaller facilities have been launched to meet local demand at key hubs in a wider set of countries, such as Bofinet in Gaborone, TelOne in Harare, and Dalkom Somalia in Mogadishu.
While this model of deploying data storage and “compute” at large, remote facilities offers clients cost and operational benefits through economies of scale, the result is a centralisation of connectivity and capability within these hubs, leaving the majority of Africa underserved.
5. What do you see as the opportunities to step this up and bring more capability to Africa?
With data volumes growing, processing demands increasing, and low-latency requirements needing to be serviced, the architecture needs to change – and quickly – to one that fully supports localised delivery, storage and processing of data and content.
The cloud needs to be “decentralised” to support content delivery not only to the office but increasingly to the home, the hotel, the car and everywhere in between.
Social media means edge-to-edge content generation and consumption, not the core-out consumption we’re currently set up to support.
Deployment of local storage and local processing within a highly connected edge data centre ecosystem will be critical going forward.
6. What is OADC doing to change Africa’s digitisation journey?
We are addressing the need to change urgently – moving fast to roll out an interconnected, open-access network of smaller, edge data centres to business and content hubs country-wide, supported by core facilities at key locations.
Starting in South Africa, this initiative with over 30 edge data centres is enabling clients to cost-effectively deploy new network technologies and expand coverage into new markets.
At the same time, they are implementing an architecture that minimises latency through content being served locally, optimising end-user experience and underpinning the successful rollout of new, time-sensitive applications.
Click here to learn more about Open Access Data Centres.
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