By Digital Realty, a U.S.-listed cloud- and carrier-neutral data center operator, said on Monday it has opened a new 6.4-megawatt data center in Nairobi, expanding its footprint in East Africa’s digital infrastructure market.
The facility, called Nairobi Two Data Center (NBO2), was built alongside the company’s existing Nairobi One (NBO1) site, according to a statement from Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR). The launch coincides with the rebranding of iColo’s operations in Kenya and Mozambique under the Digital Realty name.
The expansion adds to a campus that connects customers to more than 100 networks and two internet exchange points, the company said. The site also includes a satellite teleport, which Digital Realty said provides an additional connectivity route in areas where ground-based infrastructure is limited.
Digital Realty acquired a majority stake in iColo, a pan-African data center operator, in 2022, giving it a platform to expand across Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique and other African markets. Monday’s announcement marks the formal transition of iColo’s Kenya and Mozambique operations to the Digital Realty brand.
“The opening of NBO2 and our transition to Digital Realty are part of one story: the continued growth of Kenya’s digital economy and iColo’s evolution within a global platform,” said Wanja Muriithi, Digital Realty’s country general manager for Kenya, in the statement.
“By combining our strong local ecosystem in Nairobi with Digital Realty’s global brand, we are giving customers the ability to grow in Kenya while connecting with the broader communities of carriers, clouds, content providers and enterprises that are shaping the global digital economy.”
Marcel Louw, Digital Realty’s managing director for Africa, said the new capacity was intended to position Nairobi as a regional hub. “Digital transformation depends on infrastructure that is local, connected and globally scalable,” Louw said.
“With NBO2 now live, Digital Realty is strengthening Nairobi’s position as a gateway for East Africa and extending the value of PlatformDIGITAL to customers seeking resilient colocation, interconnection and hybrid IT solutions.”
Digital Realty said the expansion responds to rising cloud adoption, enterprise digitization and data sovereignty requirements across East Africa.
Governments and companies in the region have increasingly sought to store and process data locally, driven partly by regulatory requirements and demand for uninterrupted digital services, the company said.
The Nairobi data center market has drawn interest from several global operators in recent years, as businesses in East Africa expand their use of cloud computing and digital services.
Kenya has positioned itself as a regional technology hub, with Nairobi serving as a base for data center investment, undersea cable landings and cloud infrastructure serving neighboring countries.
Digital Realty operates its facilities under what it calls PlatformDIGITAL, a global data center platform the company markets to customers seeking colocation, interconnection and hybrid IT services across multiple regions.
The company describes itself as the world’s largest cloud- and carrier-neutral data center provider, a designation referring to facilities that allow customers to connect with multiple network and cloud providers rather than being limited to a single vendor.
The company did not disclose the cost of the Nairobi expansion or specify how many customers the new facility has signed to date. Digital Realty also did not provide a timeline for further expansion in Kenya or other African markets covered by the former iColo network.
Digital Realty’s African operations, inherited through the iColo acquisition, span multiple countries including Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast.
The company has said it plans to integrate these sites into its broader global interconnection platform, allowing customers in Africa to link with data centers the company operates elsewhere in the world.
The rebranding of iColo’s Kenya and Mozambique units follows a broader pattern of consolidation in the African data center sector, where global operators have acquired regional players to gain scale quickly rather than building new facilities from the ground up.
Analysts have pointed to rising demand for cloud services, mobile connectivity and digital payments across Africa as key drivers of data center investment on the continent.
Nairobi has emerged as one of the more established data center markets in East Africa, benefiting from undersea fiber cable connections and a comparatively developed telecommunications sector.
The city has attracted competing investments from other data center operators in recent years as demand for digital infrastructure has grown across the region.
Digital Realty shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker DLR.
