PAIX enters Kenyan data centre market

PAIX has announced entry into the Kenyan market. The firm is a pan-African provider of cloud and carrier neutral colocation data centre services.

The construction of the Nairobi data centre “PAIX Nairobi-1” has already commenced at Britam Towers and is expected to open in November 2020.

PAIX’s new data centre facility in Kenya is part of the company’s accelerated Pan-African expansion, following its 2018 entry into the West African market with PAIX ACC1, in Accra, Ghana.

The Date Centre is expected to contribute to the strength of the infrastructure that enables the digital economy in Kenya.

Kenya is the number 59 globally ranked country on Cloudscene based on data center density. The country’s top service providers include PCCW Global, China Telecom and Console Connect.

According to data from Cloudscene, Kenya has 46 internet users per 100 and the connectivity ecosystem is made up of 10 colocation data centers, 19 cloud service providers and 2 network fabrics.

PAIX Nairobi-1 data centre will host 240 cabinets with a total power capacity of 1.5MVA, 690m2 of whitespace, and a guaranteed uptime of 99.982 per cent.

The facility has fibre connectivity from all leading carriers, making the site highly suitable for PAIX’s interconnected customer community of internet service providers, telecom operators, cloud providers, content distribution networks, digital media and enterprises.

During the launch, Pan-African wholesale internet provider, Workonline Communications, said that the new data centre would be a welcome addition to the growing ecosystem in East Africa.

"This facility goes a long way in meeting the increase in demand for well-connected and reliable colocation facilities in the region," says Jackie Mwai, head of business development in East Africa at Workonline Communications.

PAIX was founded in 2016 by a team of data centre, telecom industry and investment professionals with a track record in both European and African markets. In its data centre operations, PAIX aims to offer a leading global quality of service to its national and international customer base across the African continent.

“This highly connected location for PAIX Nairobi-1 is an ideal entry point into the Kenyan data centre market, we contribute to the strength of the infrastructure that enables the digital economy in Kenya. This will allow us to serve a diverse customer community, generating new business opportunities for all connected businesses’, said Wouter van Hulten, CEO of PAIX Data Centres.

PAIX’s data centre providing PAIX’s data centre projects with long term growth financing for its Pan-African expansion.

The firm is headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. PAIX is the acronym for “Pan African Internet Exchange data centres”. Its project in Kenya is supported by the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF) of the Dutch Government.