Staff writer
Paratus Namibia will launch its carrier-neutral Data Center (DC) facility in Windhoek in August this year.
The facility, named Armada Data Center by the company, will be the first carrier-neutral and the largest DC facility in Namibia.
A carrier-neutral is a data centre that allows interconnection between multiple telecommunication carriers and/or colocation providers. Network-neutral data centres exist worldwide and vary in size and power.
The Armada Data Center will complement the Equiano Cable, which lands in Namibia in a few months and for which Paratus has already built the landing station.
According to Paratus, it is investing N$123-million to construct the Armada Data Center facility, built on the Brakwater Campus and houses two separate colocation data halls (DC1 and DC2).
Each of these is supported by two separate energy centre pairs. “Housed in 734m², 240 cabinets will provide essential state-of-the-art colocation options, data, and cloud services. Armada will help meet the ever-increasing customer demand for these services and, as existing facilities in Namibia are at capacity, fill the market void,” said the company.
Paratus said the demand aligns with global and continental requirements for complex colocation services. ResearchandMarkets.com reports that the African data centre market was worth US$2billion in 2020. The Arizton.com market report states the data centre market saw investments of USD2.663-million in 2021 and is forecast to achieve a compound annual growth rate of 12.73 per cent between 2022 and 2027.
Paratus, which has already built two DC facilities in Angola and one in Zambia in recent years, has confirmed 55 per cent occupancy of one of the two Armada Data Halls in Namibia. Paratus Chief Operations Officer Schalk Erasmus said, “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.”
He further said, “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 back-up power generation, and offer an array of add-on services and features.”
Although Paratus operates its own 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 customers to help ensure that Africa realises its full commercial potential. Armada is another testament to that vision.”
