Rack Centre CEO: African data centre industry ‘emerging’

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The African data centre industry is emerging as a veritable driver of digital platforms that will grow the economies of Nigeria and other countries of the continent, Ayotunde Coker, Managing Director of Rack Centre, the Nigeria’s Premium Data Centre provider, has said.

The Rack Centre CEO said this when the company emerged winner of the 2015 Data Centre Dynamics Award for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region in the Data Centre Impact Award Category area.

Coker described the award as “humbling to be recognised by one’s peers and colleagues in this way.”

According to him, “we made a commitment to run Rack Centre as a world class facility, and according to be best standard with creative and innovative solutions supported by the best people that could establish a new industry in West Africa, and as a catalyst for the digital platforms that would benefit all Nigerians.”

He added that, ”we are delighted to have won this well regarded award and also that the emerging African Operators are being recognised by the leaders of the industry in Europe …Last year we were the only finalist from Africa and this year, there is Rack Centre and a very interesting project from Djibouti. It shows that African Data Centre industry is emerging and we are delighted to be at the forefront of it.”

The Data Centre Dynamics award is well-respected in the data centre industry and are considered by industry analysts to be the most prestigious international awards in the industry today.

The finalists are mostly European countries, but while Rack Centre was the only African finalist in 2014, in this year, another African Finalist, Djibouti Data Centre also made the list.

This was the first time a company in Africa has won the Data Centre Dynamics award for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The Data Centre Impact award rewards companies or projects which had positively impacted its region, community and commerce.

Rack Centre was also shortlisted for the second year running for Data Centre Modular Deployment category.

The award in the EMEA area category was announced in a well-attended gala night in London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel on December 10, 2015.

Commenting on the award, George Rockett, CEO of Datacenter Dynamics said: “As an organization Datacenter Dynamics has always been at the forefront of industry thinking on all major topics. It is not only important for us to be ahead of the market, we have to be leading it at all levels. Our overhauling of the award categories and the judging process this year were necessary to keep the awards relevant to the pace of change in the industry and to guarantee the continuing relevance of our awards in a changing industry.”