Airtel Africa, a leading telecommunications provider on the continent, has announced the launch of Nxtra by Airtel, a groundbreaking data centre business aimed at addressing the escalating demand for reliable and sustainable data centre capacity in Africa. Nxtra is poised to establish one of the largest networks of data centres across strategic locations in major cities within Airtel Africa’s footprint.
The primary objective of Nxtra is to meet the evolving needs of African enterprises, providing high-capacity data centres designed to accommodate the next generation of computing. These state-of-the-art facilities will be rolled out in major cities, strategically positioned to complement Airtel Africa’s existing edge sites. Nxtra’s data centre infrastructure will adhere to global security standards, ensuring ‘five nines’ availability and offering secure and scalable integrated solutions to various entities, including global hyper-scalers, large enterprises, startups, SMEs, and governments.
By leveraging locally available data centre capacity, Nxtra aims to enhance the speed of accessing digital services while reducing the cost of managing data. This initiative is expected to fuel increased innovation and support the development of a new generation of tech talent across Africa.
Moreover, Nxtra addresses the growing importance of data sovereignty by enabling customers to meet regulatory requirements while facilitating the offering of more local cloud services in the countries where Airtel Africa operates.
The inaugural Nxtra facility is set to be established in Lagos, Nigeria, and will boast a total power capacity of 34 MW. Scheduled to be operational by mid-2025, this facility will feature high-density racks and employ the latest construction best practices to achieve a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.3.
To steer Nxtra towards its ambitious vision, Airtel Africa has appointed Yashnath Issur, the former head of Global Data Centre Portfolio Management at Amazon Web Services, as the CEO of Nxtra by Airtel. With 16 years of experience in the industry, Yashnath Issur has assembled a team of experts to execute the strategic vision of Nxtra.
Commenting on the launch, Segun Ogunsanya, Group CEO of Airtel Africa, emphasized the need for a rapid increase in data centre capacity to support the growth of Africa’s digital economy. He expressed confidence in Airtel Africa’s ability to deliver cutting-edge infrastructure projects across the continent, positioning Nxtra as a key player in Africa’s digital transformation journey.
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