Data centres housed in mobile containers could soon become a more common site in Africa, if a South African company has its way.

Business continuity and disaster management company ContinuitySA has developed what it calls a mobile data centre unit, which can accommodate up to 12 fully populated APC racks, each with 5 kilowatts of power.

The unit contains links to power - mains or generator - and fibre-optic networks.

And it is especially geared towards businesses that experience damage to their IT systems.

“Businesses are very vulnerable to IT risk,” says Mark Beverley, general manager for service delivery at ContinuitySA.

“Now, however, IT failure no longer means that the whole company has to relocate to the disaster recovery site. If the disaster is solely related to IT, we can restore the IT onsite via the mobile data centre, thus ensuring minimal disruption,” he added.

Using containers ensures that the servers are protected from local African conditions while also being easily transportable, says the company’s representatives. The container even has a white coating to reflect heat.

“Our unit is designed to fit onto a standard 14 metre trailer, so it can be transported to the client site with minimal delay,” says Beverley.

“Aside from the design of the container, we have also developed the skills to configure the equipment and get the unit connected quickly to the power supply and network once it’s on site,” Beverley notes.

Subscribers to the service can either supply their own equipment or use equipment supplied by ContinuitySA. If they are also using ContinuitySA for replication or other backup services, the equipment could arrive with data already loaded.

“We think this offers clients a great way to keep their IT systems up and running without having to move the whole workforce,” says Beverley.