IXAfrica Launches Kenya’s 1st Hyperscale Data Centre

Schneider Electric, energy management and automation company, has partnered with Nairobi-based IXAfrica Data Centres to launch East Africa’s first and largest hypercloud data centre. The power train for the new Tier 3+ facility is built around Schneider Electric MV and LV switchgear to ensure stable and reliable cloud services renewably powered by Kenya’s grid.

Nicknamed ‘NBOX1’, the new development is now open and ready for business as a carrier-neutral, AI-ready data centre – the largest and most technologically advanced digital habitat for cloud, colocation and connectivity in East Africa. It is designed to attract hyperscale and internet customers to the region’s largest data hub, delivering a customer and user experience comparable to facilities in North America and Western Europe.

Underpinning the launch of NBOX1 is Schneider Electric’s proven EcoStruxure for Data Centers architecture and solutions, providing the new data centre with maximum resilience, uptime and cost efficiency, enhanced security, and the ability to meet IXAfrica’s sustainability goals.

A Natural Digital Habitat for Innovation

Backed by a $50m capital investment from leading investment firm Helios, IXAfrica’s new data centre is positioned amid Africa’s growing technology epicentre, the so-called ‘Digital Savannah’ – serves a population of over 300 million and supports an ecosystem for innovation which includes a skilled workforce, cloud and content providers, and colocation and connectivity services.

“Kenya is a hypercloud-ready region with advanced cloud adoption propensities, a digitally savvy ecosystem, access to diverse internet fibre connectivity, high-availability and low-carbon sources of power. This all sits within a country offering a stable regulatory and political environment, and a strong economy forecast to grow 5.2 per cent in 2024,” said Snehar Shah, CEO, IXAfrica.

A key customer requirement for this major new campus data centre development is to ensure ongoing and dependable IT operations. To ensure power quality and reliability, IXAfrica turned to Schneider Electric to provide the power train solution including power protection and distribution equipment, together with transformers, MV and LV switchgear, and a basic BMS for monitoring the solution.

Schneider Electric worked with local consultants Prisma Techniques to ensure that the power train solution met the objectives of the design provided by FutureTech on behalf of IXAfrica. The equipment is engineered to meet IEC standards as well as local requirements imposed by the nature of Kenya’s national grid, and environmental considerations such as weather conditions and Nairobi’s high altitude.

The new data centre is ‘EcoStruxure-ready’, with components of the installed EcoStruxure for Data Centers platform solution including Galaxy VX modular 3-phase UPS with Li-ion, PDUs and LV and MV Switchgear.

According to Ifeanyi Odoh, Schneider Electric Country President in East Africa, “The solutions provided by Schneider Electric are engineered to support N+1 redundancy with four independent power trains, meeting IXAfrica’s immediate and long-term objectives, including design 1.25 PUE across the campus, as well as a 99.999 per cent uptime guarantee”.

With the power grid creating stability challenges as it introduces more power from renewable sources, the use of back-up lithium-ion batteries in conjunction with the Galaxy VX UPS provides a formidable solution to some of the challenges associated with intermittency or variability of supply.

Sustainability by Design

With NBOX1 designed and built as a ‘Data Centre of the Future’, Schneider Electric EcoStruxure for Data Centers and its supporting solutions not only enable the highest levels of data centre performance, resilience and resource efficiency, but also support IXAfrica’s sustainability ambitions through energy savings and lowered CO₂ emissions.

Mouna Essa Egh, Secure Power Vice President for Middle East & Africa also highlighted Schneider Electric’s commitment to pioneering sustainable solutions for data centres: “We believe that sustainable practices are essential for the future of data centres, and we are proud to partner with organizations like IXAfrica to create environmentally conscious and innovative digital habitats for the evolving technological landscape.”