A new Internet Exchange Point (IXP) for East Africa, located out of the three data center locations across Kenya’s capital, LINX Nairobi is live.
LINX, established in 1994, plans to provide future-proof solutions to further strengthen the rapidly evolving ecosystem in Kenya. Kenya’s government has placed a large emphasis on the future of digital services in the country to improve the fiber network coverage as well as ‘smart hubs’ for more rural areas.
A leading Tech Hub in Africa
Kenya is considered one of the leading tech hubs of Africa and has been undergoing a digital revolution since the early 2000s. The country reports an average of 10.8% growth per year since 2016.
The country is uniquely and strategically positioned to serve all of East Africa with fast-growing fiber connectivity throughout the whole region, with a well-connected submarine cable network providing pathways to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Nurani Nimpuno, Head of Global Engagement for LINX has led the LINX Nairobi project and is excited to see the IXP go live.
“ We can learn a lot from the country’s technical advancements, for example, their adoption of M-PESA with Safaricom, taking Kenya strides ahead in the way of digital finance innovation compared to other countries. I strongly believe LINX Nairobi can only complement and continue to grow the ecosystem in Kenya.”
Multi-Site Interconnected Platform
The LINX Nairobi interconnection hub is a multi-site, interconnected platform accessible from IXAfrica but also from Africa Data Centres NBO1 and iColo NBO1 facilities.
Networks located in any of these facilities can plug into the LINX Nairobi hub and peer their traffic, creating a secure and redundant digital environment for them to manage their network more effectively.
Peering allows networks to improve the control of their network traffic and the route it takes. It’s often more cost-effective than other methods of traffic management and improves network latency.
Technical Partnerships
In addition to the data center stakeholders in Kenya, LINX is working with a number of selected technical partners. Nokia was announced as one of these technical partners with the IXP implementing their 7220 IXR D3L and SR Linux Network Operating System (NOS) in order to deliver this future-proof and scalable solution.