Open Access Data Centres (OADC), the data centre business in Wiocc Group, plans to establish 100 “edge” data centres in smaller centres across South Africa by the end of the year.

Twenty-six of these facilities will be live by August, the company said. Edge data centres are smaller than centralised facilities and take Internet services closer to end users, reducing latency and improving performance.

The roll-out, OADC said, will support the deployment by telecommunications operators and Internet service providers of fibre and 5G services into smaller towns and regions.

The newest edge data centres are being deployed in Pietermaritzburg, New Germany (west of Durban), Mount Edgecombe (north of Durban), Beaufort West, Paarl, George, Kimberley, East London and Brits. Existing live sites include Polokwane, Klerksdorp, Gqeberha, Greenacres, Grabouw and Nelspruit.

“As well as enabling operators to expand network coverage, OADC Edge also delivers latency improvements from enabling content to be served locally, maximising end-user experience and underpinning successful roll-out of new, time-sensitive applications. The ability to pre-process large volumes of critical data at the edge, before it is forwarded to larger, regional facilities, also improves efficiency and optimises backhaul expenditure,” Wiocc said in a statement.

“Our sites are fully monitored by our 24/7/365 network operations centre [and] facilitate roof-top access for siting mobile antennae and supporting their high-speed connectivity requirements between data centres. Like our core data centres, OADC Edge facilities are open access and carrier neutral, so any licensed operator can bring their fibre into OADC data centres at no charge to support customers’ connectivity requirements,” it said. — (c) 2022 NewsCentral Media