Paratus Namibia is scheduled to officially launch its N$123 million carrier neutral Data Centre (DC) facility in Windhoek in August this year. This new facility, named Armada Data Centre, will be the first carrier neutral and the largest DC facility in the country.
The centre will complement the Equiano Cable, which is expected to land in Namibia in the next few months and for which Paratus has already constructed a landing station.
In a statement, Paratus confirmed the N$123 million investment for the facility, which is built on the Brakwater Campus and houses two separate colocation data halls (DC1 and DC2), each of which is supported by two separate energy centre pairs. The centre is housed in 734 square metres and a total of 240 cabinets will provide essential state-of-the-art colocation options, data, and cloud services. Armada is expected to help meet the ever-increasing customer demand for these services and, as existing facilities in Namibia are at capacity, fill the market void.
This demand falls squarely in line with global and continental requirements for complex colocation services. ResearchandMarkets.com reports the African data centre market was worth US$2billion in 2020. The Arizton.com market report states the data centre market saw investments of US$2.663 million in 2021 and is forecasted to achieve a compound annual growth rate of 12.73% between 2022 and 2027.
Paratus, which has already built two DC facilities in recent years, in Angola and Zambia, has already confirmed 55% occupancy of one of the two Armada Data Halls in Namibia.
Chief Operations Officer of Paratus Schalk Erasmus explained: “Our customers understand that technological advancement, in the form of big data, cloud services and AI (artificial intelligence), is critical for their future success. They need an independent, secure, and highly sophisticated DC facility. The Paratus Armada DC will store and protect client data 24/7; house and physically protect all equipment and computer systems; handle the migration from off-site to the data centre; provide backup power generation, and offer an array of add-on services and features.”
Erasmus noted that although Paratus operates its own resilient fibre network that interconnects the Armada Data Center facility to the rest of the world, it is carrier neutral, providing clients and tenants with host connectivity options and freedom of choice.
Paratus Namibia MD Andrew Hall said: “We are committed to delivering Africa’s quality network. Our connectivity and network services are complemented by our hosting, firewall and storage capability. We can work with our partners and our customers to help ensure that Africa realises its full commercial potential. Armada is another testament to that vision.”