A data centre Standards framework for Africa

In order to develop robust and reliable digital infrastructure across Africa in a consistent and coordinated way it is important that a set of underlying principles and international standards are in place to help guide development and set recognised benchmarks. The obvious approach is to underpin digital infrastructure with common internationally agreed standards and metrics. The currently available international standards and standardised KPIs offer a globally consistent framework with common benchmarks in every region of the world. This is turn supports better understanding and continued improvement of the delivery of digital services in terms of both reliability/availability and energy efficiency no matter where a site or business is located. With this in mind the rapidly growing data centre market in Africa to base future development on the suite of genuine international standards published by ISO/IEC. This approach will not only create a cohesive Pan-African data centre standards framework it will also provide African nations the opportunity to engage with, contribute to, and guide the development of these standards through national membership of ISO. The majority of African nations are already members of ISO so this is a genuine opportunity to not only apply global standards but also to influence development according to specific African regional requirements.