African data center operators and executives were celebrated at the 2024 Data Center Dynamics (DCD) Awards, held yesterday at the Grosvenor House London. The event showcased the best projects, people, and teams in the global digital infrastructure industry. With a record-breaking 350 entries across 17 categories, African finalists and winners emerged as standout contributors, reaffirming the continent’s growing influence in the sector.
Middle East & Africa Data Center Project of the Year
African innovation triumphed in the highly competitive Middle East & Africa Data Center Project of the Year category, with iXAfrica Data Centres Innovative Hyperscale data center in Nairobi, Kenya, securing the award for its collaboration with Schneider Electric. The project was lauded for its scalability, energy efficiency, and ability to meet the region’s growing demand for hyperscale facilities. iX Africa Data Centre has transformed data center services in Kenya and East Africa, creating jobs and driving regional growth. With over 35 Kenyan staff employed directly and a strong focus on local suppliers, the project delivers a lasting impact on both the industry and the community.
Another African operator, ALGcom Modular Edge Data Center (Malawi) was recognized as a finalist, showcasing excellence in modular design and edge computing solutions.
These projects competed with entries from the UAE and Dubai.
Data Center Operations Team of the Year
While Elea Data Centers Operations Team won, thanks to their operational excellence during the flooding in Porto Alegre in May 2024, ensuring service continuity and responding to the urgent demands of clients and the community, South Africa’s Teraco Data Environments Operations Team was celebrated as a finalist in the category. Teraco’s ability to address grid availability challenges in a power-constrained environment has earned it praise, and its recognition highlights the critical role of collaboration and resilience in Africa’s data center sector.
Data Center Woman of the Year
In a category celebrating visionary leadership and inclusivity, Wabo Majavu, Executive Strategy and Business Operations at Africa Data Centres, was honored as a finalist for Data Center Woman of the Year. Her transformative work in building scalable, sustainable digital infrastructure across Africa cemented her status as a global leader in the field.
Although the award went to Dame Dawn Childs, CEO of Pure Data Centres, whose dedication to promoting STEM education for young people across the UK and addressing gender imbalance across the world has paved the way for inclusivity, Majavu’s inclusion in this prestigious shortlist demonstrated the increasing impact of African women in shaping the industry’s future.
Others winners of this year’s data center awards include remarkable projects and individuals across the globe. The Edge Data Center Project of the Year went to the Scale Computing Royal Farms Edge Computing Deployment (USA), while the Asia Pacific Data Center Project of the Year was awarded to Firmus Metal International in collaboration with ST Telemedia Global Data Centres. Latin America Data Center Project of the Year was claimed by Scala Data Centers for Phase 2 of the Tamboré Campus (Brazil), which also earned the Data Center Construction Team of the Year award. In North America, the ECL MV1 Off-Grid Data Center in Mountain View, California, took the top spot, and Europe’s accolade went to the Green Mountain OSL-Hamar TikTok Data Center in Norway. The Mission Critical Tech Innovation Award was given to the Centersquare Liquid Cooling Showcase by MiCiM; the Energy Impact Award for T.Loop; and the Environmental Impact Award went to Intel. Applied Digital was recognized with the Community Impact Award, while Microsoft earned the Data Center Workforce Initiative of the Year. The Editor’s Choice Award highlighted K2 Strategic’s JHR01-02 Data Center Project in Malaysia, and Laura Munoz Becerra, a Connectivity Engineer at Meta, was named Young Mission-Critical Engineer of the Year. Andrew Jay of CBRE received the Outstanding Contribution to the Data Center Industry award.
