Earlier this week, my colleagues and I were honored to visit and take a tour of iColo’s data center in Nyali Mombasa. iColo is an expert data organization that works to provide securely housed information systems and networking equipment to its clients under best global practices. The Nyali center is the company’s third, with one being in Miritini and another one in Nairobi.
Dubbed MBA2, the Nyali establishment is a state-of-the-art data center that is custom built to accommodate four different undersea sub-systems to terminate in the building. It has two data halls each 600 square meters and can handle up to 1.8 MHz of power. With 4 large generators which are the primary source of power and a dedicated like from Kenya Power, the center is able to keep uptime at 99.99%, which basically means no downtimes whatsoever.
iColo is also very dedicated to the use of renewable energy, with heavy investment in solar. This is not a wishy-washy company policy but a firm commitment to always run operations with sustainability in mind.
Given the increasing demand for internet, cloud services and digital services among other tech demands, the investment in efficient data centers is worthwhile. iColo is a shining example of modern efficiency and has been able to take advantage of Kenya’s robust ICT policies, a good regulator with progressive guiding principles, and the geographical position of Mombasa as a gateway to Africa.
Kenya has always had its foot forward when it comes to ICT, especially with the establishment of the National ICT policy in 2006. Over the years, sector leadership and other stakeholders have steered the country into a great ICT atmosphere, and this has given data technology investors like iColo the confidence to invest more. As a result, we have witnessed rapid growth in technology as a country and become a robust regional hub with an unbeaten track record among our neighbors.
It is easy to see why demand for data centers is rising in the world. On my desk right now for instance, I have three gadgets all signed onto one cloud serve or other. I stream music for most of the day and consume video content often in HD and 4K. All Social media platforms are getting more and more video heavy and hence bandwidth heavy. As much as I’m a reader, I find myself getting increasingly drawn to the world of video. That is just me and we are millions more who are benefitting from a smooth end user experience thanks to backbone technologies like data centers.
Individuals aside, there are hundreds of banks, schools, hospitals, e-commerce operators and other organizations that need centralized systems for record keeping, storage, daily operations and backups. Data centers are here to provide infrastructure in terms of power and cooling, and customers can then bring their software, hardware and servers.
According to iColo.io’s CEO Ranjith Cherickel, “The internet in Kenya over the next five to six years will be centered around MBA2 because some of the new sub-systems that are coming are very large and we’ll continue to have increased usage from a very young population in the country”