Liquid and Unitas Global partner to build largest network of data centers in Africa
Liquid Intelligent Technologies (Liquid) and managed network provider Unitas Global have signed a strategic partnership agreement to create Africa’s largest network of interconnected data centers. The new collaboration will see Unitas Global further expand its Unitas Reach network with the integration of Liquid’s pan-African network.
The fiber backbone is reportedly 100,000-kilometers long (roughly 62,137 miles) and connects over 40 data centers across 18 African countries.
Data center providers that will be connected after the network expansion include Africa Data Centres, Teraco, and iColo.
The edge-focused partnership will also enable Liquid to connect to Unitas Global’s integrated software-defined networking (SDN) technology, IP transit and access network.
Using the Unitas Nexus software platform, Liquid will be able to design, price, provision, and manage end-to-end different connectivity solutions across the new, transport-independent infrastructure.
“We believe that everyone has the right to be connected,” explained David Eurin, Liquid’s international wholesale CEO.
“The partnership of Liquid Sea with Unitas Global creates an unrivaled, world-class network of interconnected data centers across Africa, and the increased capability brings invaluable benefits to our customers in Africa and any companies doing business on the continent.”
The move comes after a year from the last substantial edge investment in Africa.
In May 2020, Facebook, West Indian Ocean Cable, and various telecommunications firms started building a 37,000-mile submarine cable network, with estimated costs of almost $1 billion.
In the same month, Amazon Web Services announced it was expanding in Africa, opening its first AWS Region in Cape Town, South Africa.
A year later, and the Liquid and Unitas Global partnership is now going to provide another substantial upgrade to African connectivity infrastructures.
“On-demand, ubiquitous reach from any edge to any cloud everywhere is our mission,” explained Unitas Global CEO Patrick Shutt.
“This partnership brings Unitas Reach to Africa, connecting Africa data centers and businesses to cloud everywhere. We are excited to add Liquid Technologies into Unitas Nexus, our Expedia-like platform for telecom, pointing demand from multinational enterprises to design, price, and order connectivity solutions that leverage Liquid’s unique services.”
Article Topics
interconnection | IP transit | Liquid | networking | regional data center | SDN | Unitas Global
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