At long last, the African data center boom is here. After years of strong promise, but relatively slow expansion outside of South Africa, the African data center market has entered a phase of accelerated growth.

The year 2018 marks an inflection point. More multi-tenant data center facilities will be built across Africa over the next two years than were established over the past three combined. Data center colocation space, power, and revenue are all set to double over the next five years. More enterprises are adopting colocation services. Global CDN players are bulking up their African edge node presence. And crucially, the hyperscale cloud is here, transforming colocation demand patterns and volumes, altering the colo market’s traditional competitive structure, business models, and the very nature of Africa’s data center facilities.

The African Data Center Boom is our most comprehensive research to date on the African data center colocation market, leveraging months of research and interviews, extensive data collection and new analytical tools for data center analysis and geo-mapping. The report provides an unprecedented view into the dynamics underpinning the African Multi-tenant Data Center colocation market – all with the Xalam team’s uncompromising focus on finding investor value – wherever it may be. Among key findings, the report outlines:

Why the foundations for African colocation market growth are increasingly solid.
Why some markets are driven by carrier-neutral players, while others are telco-dominated;
The future of African colocation supply;
The nature of African enterprise demand for colocation;
The impact of hyperscale providers on African demand for data center colocation;
Why we say that MTDC colocation is one of the hottest growth segments in the African ICT market;
Why we broadly categorize the African data center colocation opportunity as follows: one sure thing (South Africa), four “next best” markets, three potentially strong, but stunted markets and five hidden gems (Angola, DRC, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Djibouti).

A reference report for all players and investors in the African colocation and cloud markets.