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VERTIV GOES TO MARKET WITH TELECOM AND DATA CENTRES IN KENYA FOR AI READINESS
Telecommunications and data centre providers around the world , and especially in Africa , face increasing challenges in meeting the demands driven by artificial intelligence , AI and the rapidly changing technology landscape , which is impacting their infrastructure and services . This is according to Jon Abbott , Sales Director for Strategic Telecom Clients in EMEA at Vertiv , who recently addressed Kenyan leaders in the local telco , tower , and colocation arena in Nairobi . Abbott shared insights into
the operational and technology changes that are set to reshape the entire communications networks landscape by 2030 .
According to the 2023 Digital Quality of Life Index , a study on digital wellbeing across 92 % of the world ’ s population , Kenya which is ranked 76th overall of 121 countries globally and 3rd of 25 African countries across pillars that impact a population ’ s digital quality of life , drops to 82nd overall in terms of its AI readiness .
“ The challenge for Kenya is that AI adoption is already transforming the IT stack and our IT infrastructures . This means that accelerated architectures are needed to meet the requirements of AI workloads ,” Abbott said .
Tangible network developments required will include adjustments on the operational side that consumers do not see . This is likely to include changes in network ownership and increased costs of service largely driven by ever increasing demands for energy consumption as intelligent connectivity rises . This will place a greater emphasis on efficiency , while more attention will also have to be paid to sustainability and emission reduction .
At the same time , significant technology changes are expected to take place , including a greater move to the edge of the network , which will drive big tech collaboration and increased standardisation across the physical and logical infrastructure . We can also anticipate more
Jon Abbott , Sales Director , Strategic Telecom Clients EMEA , Vertiv
The challenge for Kenya is that AI adoption is already transforming the IT stack and accelerated architectures are needed for AI workloads .
open-source groups and commoditised hardware ; data processing capability integrated into the network fabric ; and new ecosystems with more private networks .
The data centre as we see it will not disappear . Rather , they will continue to grow , but in parallel , more and smaller edge data centres will populate the landscape , each with the same fundamental physical requirements as their larger counterparts , always on , never getting too hot , which will place cooling systems under strain , and operating as efficiently and securely as possible .
The challenges all this poses in terms of energy provision , particularly in the face of energy transition and sustainability requirements to meet the 2030 global emissions reduction goals , will be considerable .
Other hurdles to be overcome range from meeting the likely exponential growth in rack density and constraints on skills availability , to trade-offs between new builds and retrofits , power grid constraints , and an increasing need for short turn-around times as well as repeatable , quick-to-deploy designs . •
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