Liquid Telecom announced in September that it is planning an $11 million expansion of its East Africa Data Center in Nairobi. The project aims to add more capacity for customers after demand previously forced the company to ration allocated rack? space.
The Kenya data center is a Tier III secure facility and the only purpose-built computing center in the area offering space for interconnect services, dedicated hosting and cloud services.
Constructed in September 2013, the four-story building recently completed another expansion in June 2014 because the original 5,300 square feet of space was completely full within the first four months of operation. The entire first floor was sold out within six months and the second floor is already 90 percent occupied. The third floor of the facility is now available for customer use and the newest expansion will extend operations to the fourth floor, giving the data center a total of 21,500 square feet of available space.
The Internet Society has credited the East Africa Data Center with being a key driver in keeping Internet prices low in Kenya, and the facility also hosts the country's Internet Exchange Point.
"By providing a central point for interconnect services, it has reduced latency, improved data services, reduced costs and made it easier to transfer data across networks," said general manager of the East Africa Data Center Dan Kwach."By keeping African data in Africa we continue to help reduce the costs of internet access while creating an environment that encourages innovation and entrepreneurial culture in the field of ICT and local businesses."
Liquid Telecom recently signed an agreement with South Africa data center provider Teraco Data Environments in order for the two facilities to share synergies between them and improve efficiency. The company is planning more facilities in the region, with possible sites being considered in Rwanda and the Kenyan city of Mombasa.
