A Nairobi data center has emerged as the biggest in the African continent, outside South Africa, reporting exponential growth in challenging conditions.

The carrier-neutral East Africa Data Center (EADC) said it is on a second phase of expansion, after its first phase of 500 sq m of data center space sold out in four months.

The second phase, an extra 1,000 sq m, is due for completion by the end of June 2014.

According to EADC’s general manager, Dan Kwach, client orders already account for 70% of the space.

Analysts have identified the data center as the largest and most sophisticated in the region.

The facility was designed to meet international standard TIA-942 providing connectivity, security and uninterrupted power supply.

“Our dedicated data center team has worked extremely hard to build the most connected place in east and central Africa,” Kwach said.

"By keeping African data in Africa we are helping to build Africa’s digital future.”

Kwach said that running a data center in Kenya presents unique challenges because there is a single grid power supplier, Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC), which makes failover more difficult.

"We designed the data center to have two 5MW supply lines from different grids with a redundant distribution path,” Kwach said.

The facility’s current load is 1.5MW but the second phase is calculated to push demand to 2.5MW, with the total supply eventually reaching 5MW.

In response, power generation company KenGen (through which KPLC sources electricity) is using investigating sustainable sources, such as solar power.

KenGen now gets 45% of its power through hydro-electric dams.

With Nairobi having no natural water board, cooling of processors is a challenge, Kwach said.

“The alternative has been sinking our own boreholes and setting up a water reservoir to meet our critical availability requirements,” Kwach said.

"By doing that we can have chillers installed to offer cooling services in our data centers.”

The data center’s growth was initially driven through government initiatives such as Kenya’s Millennium Development Goals scheme.

This provides a vehicle for the Kenya ICT Authority.

But Kwach reports a surge in interest from local small- and medium-sized enterprises.

EADC has plans to set up more facilities within East Africa, with potential sites mooted along the Kenyan coastal town, in Mombasa and in Rwanda.