Vendor neutral data centres are set to change not only the Internet, but how businesses and their strategic partners work together.
This is the opinion of Jan Hnizdo, MD of Teraco Data Environments, who says that vendor neutral data centres are essentially places of interconnection.
“There is a race to the edge that is growing in momentum. As content moves closer, migration to the cloud increases and the role of the data centre becomes more critical. By providing access to internet infrastructure and connectivity, data centres will play a key role in the overall growth and innovation across Africa.”
He says that interconnection enables companies within the data centre to connect more reliably, cost effectively and securely with other ecosystem participants as opposed to connecting though the public internet: “These cross connects enable others to identify new business opportunities, provides access to markets and encourages innovation by using the ecosystem that has naturally evolved within the data centre.”
By establishing a point of presence within a vendor neutral interconnection data centre, Hnizdo says that clients will benefit from more than just sound technology. Reaching the edge of the Internet is becoming a priority for many clients.
“Being in the data centre takes you as close as you can get to both content and clients and at a lower cost. In reaching the edge, Internet strategies will start to be redefined with one platform centre stage.”
This edge platform approach offers aggregation of networks, content, cloud and services all in a single facility.
Hnizdo says that it is here that companies are better placed to take advantage of disruptive technologies and services. Characterised by a reduction in costs, improved efficiencies and client service, the edge makes innovation more easily achievable.