iXAfrica Selected To Host OCI Region In Nairobi

iXAfrica Data Centres has been selected as the host partner for the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) region in Nairobi, a development that will see East and Central Africa’s largest hyperscaler cloud region deployed in Kenya. The selection places iXAfrica at the centre of a major expansion of public cloud infrastructure in the region.

The OCI Nairobi region, announced by President William Ruto in January 2024, is expected to serve enterprises and public sector organisations seeking locally hosted cloud services with lower latency, improved performance, and compliance with data residency requirements. Once live, the region will provide access to Oracle’s portfolio of cloud services, including compute, storage, networking, and AI capabilities.

Oracle’s choice of iXAfrica reflects the growing role of purpose-built data centre infrastructure in supporting hyperscale cloud deployments across Africa. iXAfrica’s facility in Nairobi has been designed to meet global cloud standards, with high-density capacity, resilient power systems, and carrier-neutral connectivity. Its proximity to major submarine cable landing stations and national fibre networks is expected to support large-scale cloud workloads and regional traffic growth.

“We are delighted to be in execution mode to bring OCI to Kenya,” said Snehar Shah, CEO of iXAfrica. “With this collaboration, iXAfrica is leveraging the renewable energy, talent, and abundant submarine and national connectivity available in our market.”

For organisations in Kenya and neighbouring markets, hosting OCI locally is expected to enable faster deployment of latency-sensitive and data-intensive applications, while supporting emerging use cases in artificial intelligence, analytics, and digital services. The development also contributes to broader efforts to strengthen digital sovereignty by keeping critical workloads closer to end users.

“Around the world, governments and enterprises rely on OCI for its security, scalability, and ability to run mission-critical workloads that enable innovation at scale,” said David Bunei, Country Leader for Kenya at Oracle. “These unique capabilities and our collaboration with iXAfrica will further support the growth of the country’s digital economy.”

With construction, power, and connectivity infrastructure already at advanced stages, iXAfrica is preparing to support hyperscale cloud platforms as they expand into East Africa. The hosting of the OCI region underscores the increasing importance of locally operated, cloud-ready data centres in enabling global cloud providers to scale across the continent.