PAIX Data Centres (“PAIX”), a Pan-African provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral colocation data center services, has announced the construction of its Nairobi data center “PAIX Nairobi-1” for opening in November this year.
PAIX’s new data center 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, the leading cloud- and carrier-neutral data center in Accra, Ghana.
PAIX Nairobi-1 will be located at Britam Tower, the capital’s tallest office building, and a prominent landmark located in Upper Hill.
Upper Hill is Nairobi’s new financial district and commercial hub of East Africa with regional offices of various national and international financing institutions and multinationals.
The adjacent new office facilities of Britam Tower make the location very attractive for international customers that are considering opening offices in Nairobi and prefer close proximity and 24×7 access to their critical data infrastructure.
The new PAIX Nairobi-1 data center will host 240 cabinets with a total power capacity of 1.5MVA, 690m2 of whitespace, and a guaranteed uptime of 99.982 percent.
PAIX’s data center has been designed for concurrent maintainability according to world-class standards. The shared facilities will house PAIX clients’ computer equipment, and the company ensures it is a secure facility for mission-critical IT infrastructure.
The facility has ample fiber 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.
“We are delighted to host PAIX Data Centres at Britam Tower, an award-winning and state-of-the-art building. The arrival of PAIX Data Centres in Upper Hill enables the digital transformation of our business, an important building block for our future plans. It ensures that both Britam and our tenants have access to world-class digital infrastructure, with access to all the major networks and cloud providers. This will further strengthen Upper Hill as the hub for business in Nairobi and Britam Tower as the building of choice,” Ambrose Dabani, the CEO Britam Life Assurance said.
“The central location of PAIX Nairobi-1 makes this facility an ideal connectivity hub that strengthens the digital infrastructure of the city. The tower is ideally situated for both fiber and wireless networks, and we look forward to serving our customers in the area”, according to Jama Mohamed, Director of Frontier Optical Networks.
“Building reliable communications infrastructure is at the heart of our business, and we look forward to serving PAIX clients with connectivity on our expanded network between Mombasa and Nairobi, and throughout Kenya,” says John Kamau, General Manager of Jamii Telecommunications Ltd.
Pan-African wholesale internet provider, Workonline Communications, commented that the new data center 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. “We look forward to enabling the exchange of IP traffic in due course at this new connectivity hub in central Nairobi.”
“This highly connected location for PAIX Nairobi-1 is an ideal entry point into the Kenyan data center 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’, says Wouter van Hulten, CEO of PAIX Data Centres.
PAIX’s data center project in Kenya is supported by the Dutch Good Growth Fund (“DGGF”) of the Dutch Government providing PAIX’s data center projects with long term growth financing for its Pan-African expansion.