June 4th, 2021 – Nairobi, Kenya.
Africa Data Centres welcomes Asteroid IXP into its Nairobi facility to deliver strong regional interconnection.
In a move delivering strong benefits to Internet users in East Africa, the Kenyan operation of Africa Data Centres has entered into an agreement with Internet Exchange Point (IXP) provider Asteroid. IXPs are great catalysts for local improved interconnection. An IXP enables networks to peer which is to connect and exchange their traffic in a more direct manner, resulting in reducing costs and latency, and providing better quality of service to Internet end users.
According to Dan Kwach, Managing Director of Africa Data Centres East Africa, welcoming Asteroid IXP in Nairobi will enhance the connections between big tech giants, international content providers and local Kenyan and African networks and enterprises.
“We are essentially a carrier-neutral business and while we already have a partnership with Kenya IXP, we are pleased to see Asteroid starts operating an IXP in Nairobi. Hosting a second IXP within our facility provides more options to our customers as well as it increases their network resilience and
redundancy.”
Dan Kwach, Managing Director of Africa Data Centres East Africa.
Asteroid has demonstrated a proven track record in delivering highly reliable, cost-effective IXPs within and outside the African continent, one example being the Asteroid Mombasa IXP which has gathered a localized community of 20+ networks in the span of one year.
“We are excited to enter into partnership with Africa Data Centre. Since its start in 2012, the Nairobi facility has hosted a diverse range of networks and has been expanded to accommodate to the growth of the ecosystem. In setting up our IXP in Nairobi, the decision to install one of our points of presence within ADC was simply a no-brainer.”
Asteroid CEO and co-founder, Remco van Mook.
Having content and services close to local users is necessary to obtain good response times and low latency. At the same time, it also makes those services and content more reliable and less vulnerable to external disruption.
Kwach explains that another critical benefit of hosting Asteroid IXP is that in Africa, it is not uncommon to see Internet traffic – destined from one local ISP to another – leave the continent through expensive international links, before returning to reach the other local party.
“This is not only inefficient and slow but also leads to high costs for all parties. However, having access to IXPs on-site allows our customers to exchange this traffic locally instead, eliminating the need for
third parties or expensive international links.”
Dan Kwach, Managing Director of Africa Data Centres East Africa.
Apart from the fact that network infrastructure costs are lowered and there is greater control of routing paths, peering increases efficiency by improving network performance, while at the same time, having access to more than one IXP is good from a redundancy perspective.
Moreover, notes Kwach, with a direct connection, connectivity is improved for both networks, resulting in reduced latency and better bandwidth utilisation for all network users.
Perhaps one of the greatest benefits to Africa Data Centres’ clients is the ease of use Asteroid brings. Through Asteroid, networks can handle their connection at the click of a button using Asteroid’s management dashboard. Networks can also leverage the use of their peering ports to exchange, and sell and buy, all sorts of IP services via private VLANs. This fosters the development and exchange of the services among the local ecosystem.
“As a generation of African digital-natives emerges, demand is being created for high-quality carrier-neutral data centre capacity. Africa Data Centres understands the importance of peering with modern,
well-run, cost-effective IXPs in Africa, as we view this as something that can serve as the catalyst for Africa’s digital and economic transformation.”
Dan Kwach, Managing Director of Africa Data Centres East Africa.
Asteroid is a global interconnection platform innovator. They operate neutral Internet exchange points (IXPs) worldwide, and work with trusted parties in local markets to deliver their innovative IXP platform locally, wherever there is a need.