View of a big city at dusk, behind it a mountain

Leveraging the potential of the African market

News | 09.12.2021

Data Center Products, Data Center Group's product business unit, is continuously expanding its track record in Africa through strong partner business. Taking into account the different developments and local conditions within this huge continent is challenging.

One continent, many challenges, great opportunities

The African continent has been in a constant state of change not only since yesterday. And the pace of development is still increasing. However, the speed of change varies considerably among the continent’s 54 countries. In addition, there are different political situations and heterogeneous markets, some of which are developing exponentially. Responding to these and being prepared for them requires great agility. And the course is set for growth: The extreme increase in population is both a challenge and an opportunity. By 2050, the population will almost double from today's 2.3 billion inhabitants (source: UN World Population Prospects 2019; Berechnungen / statistical computation: BiB). This will increase the purchasing power of the quite young population and, at the same time, innovations, as well as technological developments. This brings many new company formations, investors and start-ups onto the scene and gives rise to new industries or tech hubs. In many African countries, digital transformation is advancing at a rapid pace: mobile payments, insurances and loans using blockchain, digital health solutions and other innovations are on the rise.

A track record on a growth path

The project history of Data Center Products reflects this development: four years ago, Data Center Products succeeded in receiving the first major order in the financial sector. Several room-in-room projects were implemented for a bank in Mozambique - and all are ECB•S certified (certification of the highest security level on the market). Shortly after, another large room-in-room project followed in Egypt - also for a bank. With our strategic partner "Sterling & Wilson", who acted as general contractor (GC), we equipped an IT security room for Faisal Bank (also ECB•S and EN-1047 certified) with our solutions. Read our reference report here.

The next room-in-room project was not long in coming – this time for a Morocco-based government organization.

We successfully won another project with a multi-container solution as a data center for a financial institution in West Africa: A DC IT Container, which is ready for immediate use as a plug-and-play solution, provides the institution's new data center. The customer was particularly convinced by the DC IT Monitoring tool feature enabling remote control of certain functions. Thus, the container can be placed in a logistically optimal and secure place and does not depend on the staff’s location. Additionally, the monitoring tool provides the analysis, monitoring, evaluation, and partial control of the IT infrastructure. For further protection, the IT container is also equipped with redundant components and is therefore declared a high-availability data center and Tier 3 compliant.

Individual answers to special requirements

The project history shows: Overall, the strategy paid off. Together with our local partners, who act as general contractors, we are positioning ourselves as a successful solution provider with our IT security products. In these often price-driven markets, we do not respond with discounts, but with better warranty performance. Under these circumstances it is essential to ensure the solution’s function over the long term, sustainability, and the correspondingly high quality.

In addition to the warranty, we have also adapted our solutions to the African market’s challenging conditions. One example is the special coating we use for containers installed in coastal regions. The proximity to salt water requires special corrosion protection. Painting in accordance with DIN EN ISO 12944-C4 protects against the increased salt load. We are also noticing an increased demand for the highest protection classes, especially for decentralized locations to which we offer an appropriate response, for example with ECB•S certification as well as RC3 and higher for room-in-room systems.

Together with our local partners, we are perfectly positioned for the future African market. We benefit and learn from the broad experience in the different markets and at the same time offer the appropriate solutions adapted to the clients’ individual requirements. We are already working on the next projects and look forward to everything that is yet to come. Stay tuned!

‘More and more Governments, Banks, Utility companies or IT and telecom operators (5G) are placing their critical IT under the protection of our highly certified ECB-S room-in-room solutions. Many industrial companies rely on our DC ITSafes to protect their core IT in a critical production environment. With this type of solutions and with our containerized data center solutions for a distributed data center compute power, we are looking forward to supporting the needs of an ever more demanding African market’, says Michél Düring, Sales Director, Data Center Group.

 

Pictures: © Ava Peattle / #315137598 / stock.adobe.com (Standard licence) - © lumyaisweet / #257451962 / stock.adobe.com (Standard licence) 

Get in touch!

To learn more about our products and services, please contact us. You can use the contact form or simply give us a call. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Related News