ChannelVision Sept-Oct 2017

By Sybrand Pretorius And these numbers are growing, driven not the least by Africa’s and other emerging mar- ket’s relatively young population, which in the last 18 months, has seen a huge 47 percent increase in active mobile social users. Of course social media is just one source of the data that is generated daily by busi- nesses and consumers across the continent – data that typically needs to be managed and stored within a data centre, something that Africa is seriously short of. In fact, there is only one Tier-certified data centre in Africa for every 47 million people, compared to one for every 5.5 million people in Western Europe. And with Africa’s population growing faster than any other continent on earth, the problem is only going to get worse. So why is this actually a problem? Well, there are three critical issues: 1. Data Security This shortage of professionally built and maintained data centres means that much of Africa’s data is stored in unsecured server rooms, often without adequate climate control, redundant power supplies, fire suppression capability or a host of other critical systems. All of these are vital to ensuring the integrity of a data centre and the optimal operation of the IT equipment it houses – essentially keeping data accessible and safe. Of course data safety isn’t guaranteed by simply ensuring that there is redundancy built in to guard against and overcome potential points of system failure. Physical security is also important to minimise the risks of data being tampered with, corrupted, stolen or com- pletely lost, any of which could lead to serious damage to an individual or company. Ready-Made Solution E very day people around the world generate 500 million tweets, post 4.3 billion Facebook messages and make 6 billion Google searches. The role of prefabricated data centres in emerging markets International Agents Flexenclosure eCentre data center site installation, MTN Cote d’Ivoire, Ivory Coast Flexenclosure eCentre initial construction Channel Vision | September - October, 2017 46

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