Schneider Electric: Powering Manufacturing Via Cloud Data

Digital transformation innovator Schneider Electric has partnered with IXAfrica Data Centres to manufacture and launch the largest hyper cloud data centre in East Africa.

The new Tier 3+ facility’s powertrain will be built around Schneider Electric MV and LV switchgear, which will ensure reliable cloud services powered by Kenya’s grid.

The new development ‘NBOX1’ is now running as a carrier-neutral, AI-ready data centre, an advanced digital habitat for cloud, colocation and connectivity for East African businesses, including manufacturing.

It will be marketed towards hyperscale and internet customers.

NBOX1 also features Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure for Data Centers architecture and solutions, which provide resilience, cost efficiency, security and the ability to meet IXAfrica’s sustainability goals.

Helios supports IXAfrica's NBOX1 in Kenya

The African data centre market is expected to experience extensive growth over the next two years, according to The Africa Data Centres Association (ADCA) and The Oxford Business Group (OBD) who co-authored a report ‘The Data Centres in Africa’.

The report investigates data centre development across the continent and suggests up to a 50% capacity increase by 2026.

This new partnership is just one case of Africa’s data centre growth.

Supported by a US$50m capital investment from investment firm Helios, IXAfrica’s NBOX1 is in Africa’s tech epicentre, sometimes called the ‘Digital Savannah’, which supports over 300m people in the skilled workforce, from cloud and content providers to colocation and connectivity service employees.

“Kenya is a hyper cloud-ready region with advanced cloud adoption propensities, a digitally savvy ecosystem, access to diverse internet fibre connectivity, high-availability and low-carbon sources of power,” says Snehar Shah, CEO IXAfrica. “This all sits within a country offering a stable regulatory and political environment, and a strong economy forecast to grow 5.2% in 2024.”

IXAfrica turned to Schneider Electric to provide the power train solution for its new data centre campus, including power protection and distribution equipment, together with transformers, MV and LV switchgear and a basic BMS for monitoring the solution.

The data centre equipment is also engineered to meet IEC standards as well as local requirements imposed by the nature of Kenya’s national grid, Nairobi’s high altitude and weather conditions.

“The solutions provided by Schneider Electric are engineered to support N+1 redundancy with four independent power trains, meeting IXAfrica’s immediate and long-term objectives, including design 1.25 PUE across the campus, as well as a 99.999% uptime guarantee,” said Ifeanyi Odoh, Schneider Electric Country President in East Africa.

Sustainable data centre design

Schneider Electric EcoStruxure for Data Centers have designed and built NBOX1 as a ‘Data Centre of the Future’, with the best levels of data centre performance and IXAfrica’s sustainability ambitions, something the IXAfrica team is very proud of.

“We believe that sustainable practices are essential for the future of data centres and we are proud to partner with organisations like IXAfrica to create environmentally conscious and innovative digital habitats for the evolving technological landscape," said Mouna Essa Egh, Secure Power Vice President for Middle East & Africa.

Snehar Shah added that the company has built a strategic relationship with Schneider Electric, partly due to the new Nairobi campus site being built on land formerly part of Schneider’s complex. 

“The power engineering for the site was designed by Schneider’s local partners. NBOX1 is sustainable by design and our goal is to ‘Keep it Africa’ - our switchgear and panel ware were all manufactured by Schneider Electric on our own doorstep,” he said. “We’re delighted to partner with Schneider Electric, a company that not only shares our ethos and passion for the environment but is also committed to ensuring that IXAfrica and its clients meet their operational and sustainability goals.”

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