In 2020, the Africa Datacenter market was valued at $2 billion. We are now in 2024, and tech experts are saying that in five years, that is, in 2026, the data center market will double its value in 2024.
That means that the market will grow at a compounded annual rate of 15 percent from 2021 to 2026, says a report by Research and Markets.
The growth statistics are not accidental. They are expected because of several positive factors driving the market. Some of these are renewable power availability, smart city initiatives, and increased support for the digital economy.
Countries such as South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, and Ethiopia are working tirelessly toward improving the share of renewable energy especially as it concerns electricity from the African perspective.
Clearly, Africa is seen as an emerging leader in microgrid capacity, and grid-connected, on-site energy generation or storage plants help data centers control power costs charged by traditional grid facilities.
Enterprise operators and others invest heavily in adopting renewable energy sources to power data centers.
As the Africa IT infrastructure market is expected to reach $4 billion in 2016, the demand for fast-processing efficient servers will grow. So also, the demand for build-to-suit infrastructure will keep growing within this period.
Among others, healthcare, transportation, and logistics, education, and heavy industries need advanced server systems for efficient services. This will continue to be the case because unreliable power grid connectivity increases the demand for power backup sources.
The use of UPS and generator sets are also expected to increase because there is an increase in the construction of large and mega data center facilities.
Right now, some vendors are striving they provide innovative UPS solutions to boost efficiency and reduce cost. The trend expects to continue during the forecast period, with several operators expected to shift to tier 4 facilities due to growth, even tier III facilities will soon become unpopular.
