Rack Centre Eyes Sub-Saharan Africa Dominance

Rack centre, foremost Data centre operator in the country has expressed its determination to deliver unmatched data centre services as it positions to be the leading operator in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Ayotunde Coker, managing director, Rack Centre told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that they have scaled up their services to accommodate more customers as well to be at par with what is obtainable in South Africa.

“Right now, we have customers that are located across different countries in West Africa. There are others who see the value of partnering with us. However, with the strength of brand we have now, we see the benefit of locating elsewhere in West Africa. A francophone kind of location is a good option. Many people would think, ‘Oh, Ghana should be the next place’. Well, we reach Ghana through many options here. Do you want to go by Main One, Glo, MTN; we will take you to Ghana through any of them.

“The benefit of being in a francophone is due to the synergy to address the needs around the West African area. We take a step at a time. In some of those countries are our competition, but competition is healthy. We have built ourselves to the market-leading position. The main thing is that the prepositions we take to those markets are real. We are going there with credibility and track record that is known.

Coker expressed confident that Rack Centre services are as good as and better than many in South Africa.

“Scale-wise, yes, they have been active for longer years, but I really do believe we will catch-up and even exceed them. We are the biggest economy in Africa. Lagos State itself is the fifth largest economy by GDP in Africa. And there are other exciting statistics about the Continent that give us that confidence.

“However, the reason I wouldn’t say we are competing with South Africa is this: there is a scale in South Africa, but Rack Centre as Tier III is the most connected datacentre now, certainly, in Sub-Saharan Africa. We believe in Africa. Why? The five undersea cables are directly connected to Rack Centre with about 32 Carriers connected to us. You can reach anywhere in Nigeria; with the four telecom companies we have in Rack Centre, we have most telecom masts in Nigeria connected here.

“So, the opportunity for us to deliver the Edge Data centre Services (EDS) is huge. Every country on the Atlantic coast of Africa is directly connected to us. The two, of those undersea cables, especially the WACS connect from here to South Africa. So, we connect to South Africa seamlessly. It is a fantastic opportunity to cooperate with South Africa because we connect with datacentres there at low latency. We can deliver services in partnership with some operators there.

“Presently, South Africa accounts for 50% of the data centre (scale) capacity in Africa according to a study by XALAM Analytics, but the potential for Nigeria is huge and significant-if you look at the certifications we have had, the way we are regarded by our customers and the global industry, we are regarded as the premium,” he noted.