1. An African Colocation Story
An Overview of Growth and Challenges from an African Colocation Operator

2. African has a world of Opportunity

3. Africa – Highly concentrated
3 COUNTRIES: KENYA, NIGERIA & SOUTH AFRICA REPRESENT 95% OF TOTAL WHITE SPACE IN AFRICA
KENYA ≈ 2000sqm
We estimate the African colocation white space at around 50,000 Square meters in In relative terms, the African colocation market is small. It
represents less than 1% of the global data center colocation market, depending on estimates of global supply. The SSA market is around 7x smaller than
Europe’s largest colocation market, London, and about 3X smaller than the second largest market in Europe, Frankfurt.
Such relative comps belie the potential of the African colocation space in our view – what for some, is small, to others is ripe with potential. We consider
Africa’s broader colocation market upside to be excellent, with demand for cloud services only starting to pick up.
We estimate African power supply on available colocation space in Africa at around 45 MW, with some material differences per country. South Africa, for
example, accounts for around 75% of available data center power load in sub-Saharan Africa.
The overall number of colocation data centers is difficult to estimate, given the relatively informal nature of some offerings. Our review of 25 markets in sub-
Saharan Africa suggests a range between 110 and 150 dedicated and partial-usage multi-tenant data centers.
Recent data center expansion in Africa has been strong and has come in spurts data center colocation white space is now 2.5 times larger than 2010
levels, with the incremental upticks coming in 2012, and most particularly 2014 as new data centers became operational in the continent’s largest markets,
South Africa and Nigeria.
The African data center colocation market is highly concentrated. Three countries - South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya – represent around 95% of available
colocation white space in sub-Saharan Africa. For the most part, however, this concentration is reflective of the structure of the African economy. The above
three countries represent around 65% of sub-Saharan Africa’s entire GDP. Angola and Ethiopia, the two markets rounding up Africa’s Top 5 GDP, are relatively
closed to foreign private projects. Outside of Ethiopia, the top 5 African economies have at least one established large scale dedicated multi-tenant colocation
data center. When adjusting to city/region level, we estimate that Africa’s large scale colocation data centers touch only around 30% of the continent’s GDP.
NIGERIA ≈ 6000sqm
SOUTH AFRICA ≈ sqm

4. Economic Factors Drive White Space
CITY
ESTIMATED GDP ($ bn)
# OF MULTITENANT DC WITH >250 SQM WHITE SPACE
Johannesburg
141
>10
Lagos
120
>5
Cape Town 70
Durban 60
>3
Ibadan 25
Nairobi 28 1
Dar es Salam
5.60
Abidjan 9
Kano 30
Kinshasa
7.5
N/A**
Accra 5
***Sources: TZS, NBS, Stats SA, World Bank, KNBS, Departement des Statistiques de Cote-d’lvoire

5. Regional Footprint driven by Economic Factors
JB1 | JOHANNESBURG Opened February 2010
MVA, 3800 sqm
JB2 | JOHANNESBURG Opened Jan 2017
14MVA, 5000 sqm
JB3 | JOHANNESBURG
Opening No 2017
24 MVA, 6500 sqm
ISO 9001
ISO 27000
PCI DSS
DB1 | DURBAN Opened September 2012
2MVA 1000 sqm
CT1 | CAPE TOWN Opened January 2009
- 3MVA 1600 sqm

6. Interconnection & Peering growth driving Whitespace demand
YEAR
INTERCONNECTS
CLIENTS
Whitespace Capacity
Power
2010
300 23
5400 sqm
9MVA
2011
879 53
2012
1163 93
6400 sqm
11MVA
2013
2017
132
2014
3392
180
2015
5578
219
2016
7122
280
8624
348
17900 sqm
49MVA
Minimum 2 Year Build Process
Capital Intensive – Over R2 Billion investment to date

7. No DC build is the same
Design and builds are dependent on various factors including – geographic location, Client Type, Land and power availability, Physical access to facilities via road

8. Resource and Utility Considerations
Lack of Local Skilled Resources;
Key Power infrastructure elements are imported;
Increased Build Turnaround;
Power Crisis creates for complex and high cost builds;
Varied geographical climate needs to be taken into consideration;
Cooling now become a key consideration

9. Lessons learned
Colocation is not easy…. Many operational factors to consider e.g. Skilled Resources, Accurate Growth Projections guide CAPEX requirements
Compliance to PCI and ISO requirements far more key than general Uptime type certifications;
Never forget the simple things… Always label the cables
Planning is key to any project success don’t just race in and build;
Never forget your market size and build accordingly in order to avoid CAPEX waste 9

10. Thank you
Michele McCann