LIQUID Telecom has reportedly invested R1,3 billion ($109,6 million) into expanding its data centre facilities in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa over the past 12 months.

According to a report from Tech Central, a South African-based online media outlet on the ICT industry, the newly expanded Johannesburg facility was unveiled at an event at Liquid Telecom’s head office in Midrand on Tuesday evening.

Liquid Telecom chief executive, Nic Rudnick, said in an interview with Tech Central on the sidelines of the launch of the event that the group had invested R1,3 billion in the additional capacity.

“On the data centres alone, we have invested over R1,3 billion in the last 12 months. For the first time, a lot of the cloud providers will be hosted here in Africa. Until now, if you wanted to access cloud services, you’ve been accessing a data centre in Ireland or Europe or the United States. They’ve never been hosted here in Africa. This means a huge improvements in quality and latency for all the cloud services we’re using and the ones we are yet to use,” he said.

A data centre is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems.

It generally includes redundant or backup power supplies, redundant data communications connections, environmental controls (such as air conditioning and fire suppression) and various security devices.

Companies running business online that produce countless data use data centres services to secure their digital belongings for a smooth workflow. In addition to storage space, data centres also deliver internet networks, digital data safety features, and other hosting and data capabilities.

As such, in cases where there is an internet blackout such as the one experienced in Zimbabwe on December 5, 2017, companies will not lose their information, as it would be backed up on these data centres.-Newsday