The Kampala Industrial and Business Park (KIBP), last May, became home to a new data center, Raxio Uganda. The park is touted by its developer, Raxio- a subsidiary of Roha Group Inc, a U.S.-based investment firm- as the first Tier III neutral state-of-the-art data center intended to "support industries that face increasingly complex and unique IT and regulatory challenges by providing secure colocation space with up to 400 racks ready to house mission-critical IT infrastructure in a 24/7 operational environment," the company said at the project launch
" Multiple points of connectivity increase resilience in service, while driving down overall cost of connectivity for customers "
The data center brings the “metro edge” data center model to Africa, allowing for the exchange of data traffic in facilities located close to urban centers in state-of-the-art, hyperscale-ready environments. Raxio Uganda, thus, offers a wide variety of seamless data connectivity options through a variety of local and international fiber carriers currently connected at the data center. These include Africell Uganda, Airtel Uganda, Liquid Telecom, MTN Uganda or also the National Information Technology Authority-Uganda (NITA-U).
"The multiple points of connectivity increase redundancy, resilience in service, optimal uptime, and diversity in business operations, while driving down overall cost of connectivity for customers. In addition, Raxio hosts an instance of the Uganda Internet eXchange Point which allows networks to directly interconnect and freely exchange data traffic at a common point in-country, making the Internet cheaper, faster, and more reliable ». Besides, equipment choices were made and adapted to the local environmental and climatic conditions with a view to continuously reduce energy consumption ", said Raxio.
" By providing the right technological infrastructure needed to transform businesses, our data centers will help drive economic growth, social development, and digital transformation throughout Africa "
A group that continues its expansion on the continent. Before Uganda, it launched a data center in DR Congo in March 2021, before continuing with Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique and Ethiopia. In doing so, it stands out today as a major player in the data market on the continent, which is estimated to reach $3 billion by 2025. Africa, which has been lagging behind in this field, is seeking to catch up, as governments have taken up this issue of national sovereignty and are seeking to "repatriate" their data, which are currently mainly hosted abroad. Raxio is on track to launch up to 12 carrier-neutral facilities across Africa within the next three years," said Robert Mullins, CEO of Raxio Group. "We strongly believe that by providing the right technological infrastructure needed to transform businesses, our data centers will help drive economic growth, social development, and digital transformation throughout Africa".
In Kampala, they expect no less. While the authorities have put in place a strategy to develop the digital transformation and therefore the country’s economy, a project called Digital Uganda Vision- the establishment of this new data center is welcomed, as the country was already home to other data centers including the national data center Tier 3 in Jinja, NITA Uganda, designed to expand the provision of centralized hosting services for applications and government data. The goal is twofold: to secure data and to streamline hosting costs.
“ The data center will improve and ensure the Information Security System is secure, reliable, resilient and capable of responding to cyber security threats “
Raxio Uganda, on the other hand, is geared more towards the private sector, especially financial players. Thus for the government, Raxio Uganda supports “the core priorities of the Ministry of ICT in Uganda, including but not limited to ICT infrastructure including extending the ICT infrastructure network to cover the entire country and to ensure digital inclusion, job creation through ICT Research & Innovation and enhancement of information security,” the Ugandan Ministry of ICT said at the launch. It also stressed that “the data center also will improve and ensure the Information Security System is secure, reliable, resilient and capable of responding to constant cyber security threats.” Therefore, “With the growth in data usage, storage and the broader digital transformation in Uganda, Raxio will be a center-piece of infrastructure supporting the Ugandan economy and the goals set out in the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology’s data Strategy.”
Global giants like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon, who are trying to get closer and closer to their customers
Especially since the Uganda Raxio data center should help attract new economic players, from local SMEs to global giants such as Google, Meta (formerly Facebook), Microsoft and Amazon that are looking to get closer and closer to their customers. Microsoft has, indeed, launched its own data centers on the continent, in South Africa last year, while Amazon Web Services has announced it own in Cape Town.
In short, "a welcome initiative" which "will inspire continued growth of the ICT sector," as summed up by Steven Kirenga of the National Information Technology Authority, a government agency.
Note that last June, Uganda secured $200 million to accelerate digital transformation and social inclusion. The funding includes the new Uganda Digital Acceleration Project-GovNet (UDAP-GovNet), which is expected to expand access to affordable broadband Internet, improve the efficiency of digitized public service delivery, and strengthen digital inclusion in Uganda. This is in line with the objectives set by Digital Uganda Vision.
