Continued internet availability is essential for the digital enterprise, but disruptions to fibre and subsea cable outages have raised concerns for enterprises reliant on the uninterrupted flow of data. From banks to software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers, internet service providers (ISPs), and content providers, the need for resilient connectivity strategies has once again come to the fore in recent weeks.
Teraco’s network-dense ecosystems and highly resilient data centre infrastructure form a vital part of Africa’s internet backbone. Clients deployed within the Platform Teraco ecosystem can minimise the impact caused by fibre, subsea cable faults, and internet connectivity outages across the region.
Today, Teraco clients access the broadest telecommunication ecosystem in Africa, with over 250 network service providers, including all the cable system operators that traverse the East and West coasts of Africa. Network resilience is achieved as enterprises and network operators can easily switch to alternative network and subsea cable operators of their choice in the event of an unforeseen outage, thereby ensuring minimal disruption to networks and continued access to the internet.
NAPAfrica, the fifth largest Internet Exchange Point (IXP) globally, serves as a hub within Teraco where ISPs, cloud, content, and network providers can exchange traffic directly, improving the overall efficiency and reliability of their internet connections. NAPAfrica allows networks to implement physical cross-connects to carriers and increase peering over the exchange. During subsea cable outages, for example, the exchange experiences a notable surge in traffic volumes, helping to maintain critical internet services for users across the country.
Michele McCann, Head of Platforms at Teraco, explains: “By offering clients this massively interconnected ecosystem, we can provide true network resilience through interconnection and additional network capacity to anyone at the flick of a switch. Teraco can seamlessly connect to any telco network or cable system required. This is evidenced by the recent uptake in urgent cross-connects from our existing clients that provision additional capacity on unaffected cable systems.”
Subsea cable faults remain a common occurrence, with over 100 breaks reported annually across the globe. Today, as in the case in prior years, South African disruptions to international connectivity due to breaks in submarine cables are minimised given the proliferation of network cables along the East and West coast of Africa. NAPAfrica provides a viable solution for affected networks by offering a point of interconnection for networks to East and West coast connectivity, reducing reliance on damaged cables.
