Africa's only vendor neutral colocation data centre, Teraco, is Africa's most densely interconnected Data Centre with over 12,000 interconnects and growing at an impressive rate of ±500 interconnects per quarter. This means it has become very easy and efficient for Teraco's clients to do business and exchange information.

Teraco CEO, Lex van Wyk, says that the company is also home to Africa's largest peering exchange, NAPAfrica and is playing a critical role in the development of an interconnect hub. Located in the Teraco's data centres in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, NAPAfrica facilitates the exchange of around 300GBps of traffic between more than 300 diverse African and international peers: "NAPAfrica's peers cover the full spectrum of the Internet including: content, cloud, carriers & networks, ISPs, CDNs, but also many enterprises, who are rapidly realising the benefits of peering."

In its 10 years of operation, van Wyk says that Teraco has played a significant role to bring the edge of the Internet - including content, cloud and connectivity - closer to not only the business sector, but the man on the street: "The resulting interconnection density within Teraco, alongside NAPAfrica's drive to bring global content to a local distribution point, has resulted in lower Internet access costs for South Africa and many other sub-Saharan countries."

Van Wyk says that this is prevalent in the reduction of general data costs: "Not too long ago most content was acquired from Europe via expensive data connections, Teraco has changed this and as a result, most large international content providers now colocate within Teraco's data centres, resulting in a much better user experience and lower costs."

To further Africa's development and to continue to play a pivotal role in the development of the continent, Teraco has announced that it is currently in a POC (proof of concept) phase with select clients to further enhance the Teraco Interconnection Platform. This new functionality will enable clients to virtually cross connect with one another and their partners of choice via a single physical cable, further lowering costs, and allowing for greater flexibility and control.

The Teraco Interconnection Platform is a strategic collaboration of several Teraco-developed technologies. Van Wyk says that data centre interconnects will become the integration point for digital businesses, and this platform will help speed up the adoption of cloud services and aid in digital transformation.

The Teraco Interconnection Platform includes:

• NAPAfrica (free peering / IXP)
• Cloud Exchange (all local and global cloud providers on one Teraco platform for fast and secure interconnection)
• Virtual Cross-Connects (software defined interconnection via a secure platform, secure, flexible and highly scalable use of ports)
• Physical Cross-Connects (low cost physical cable run for one client to another with 72 hours guaranteed via SLAs)

"This is the first of its kind in Africa and will not only give Teraco's clients the ability to be more agile but will also support the rapid growth of Africa's internet traffic," says van Wyk.

For more information on the Teraco Interconnection Platform visit www.teraco.co.za