Many data center operators in Africa are ditching “security by obscurity” and adding signage, logos and branding to their buildings. This shift reflects the benefits of campuses as well as a growing focus on community engagement and brand awareness.
In the early years of the Internet industry, one of the biggest search challenges was finding a data center for a site visit. The facilities were typically located in industrial parks, blending in with the surrounding warehouses.
In those days, data centers wanted to remain as anonymous as possible and had little or no exterior signage. This was part of a practice known as “security by obscurity,” in which data centers sought to avoid attention to bolster customer concerns about security.
Things have changed a lot. In 2023, many new data center campuses, globally and especially in Africa have large signs touting their presence.
There are three factors driving this trend:
Data center operators have gained more control over physical security with the development of secure, purpose-built cloud campuses with extraordinary access control.
Data center companies now place a priority on becoming part of the community where they operate, and boosting their engagement and visibility.
Growing competition has created a more crowded marketplace, making name recognition more important than ever.
- Branding Matters in Africa
Nowhere is this trend more visible than in Africa’s data center hubs, such as Lagos, Nairobi, and Cape Town. These cities are home to a growing number of data center campuses, and many of them are prominently branded.
For example, the Equinix MDXI data centers in Lagos and Accra have large signs that identify the company and its locations. The same is true for the Google Cloud Platform data center in Nairobi and Rack Center’s facilities in Lagos.
This branding is not just about making data centers more visible. It is also a way for companies to build trust with customers and the community. By being more transparent about their operations, data center operators can help to allay concerns about security and environmental impact.
1. Engaging With the Community
In addition to branding, data center operators in Africa are also taking steps to engage with the community. This includes holding town hall meetings, donating to local charities, and supporting educational initiatives.
For example, the Teraco data center in Johannesburg has a program that provides scholarships to students studying information technology. The company also hosts regular tours of its facility for the public.
By engaging with the community, data center operators can help to build a positive reputation for the industry. This is important in a region where there is still some uncertainty about data centers.
2. Standing Out In A Crowd
The branding and community engagement efforts of data center operators is beginning to pay off. The industry is growing rapidly, and demand for data center space is increasing. Investment into the market is projected to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 15% from 2020 to 2026. Global real estate industrial and logistics developer, Agility Logistics Park (ALP), launched masterplans for four new data centre campuses in Egypt, Ghana, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, one of the largest investments to date, and when completed, will contribute a total of approximately 275,000m2 of cutting-edge data centre capacity to ALP’s existing infrastructure in the Middle East and Africa. Other players jostling for market share include Digital Realty, which has plunked significant funds acquiring iColo in Kenya and Teraco in South Africa; Equinix, which acquired MainOne data centres, and NTT and Vantage Data Centres, which have committed over $500 million to new data centres in Johannesburg and its environs. Recognition for data center and cloud operators is on the rise: at the recent Telecoms Innovation Awards in Lagos, data center and cloud companies carted most of the awards.
As the competition intensifies, data center operators will need to find ways to stand out from the crowd. Data center operators must employ different offline and online marketing channels to maximize reach, from blog content, to case studies, and events too.
By being more visible and engaged, data center operators can build trust with customers and the community. This will help them to secure the long-term success of their businesses.
