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Connecting Africa

Staff Reporter
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Connecting Africa

Wingu.africa is East Africa’s first carrier and cloud neutral data center group with award-winning operating expertise and experience, offering a single point of contact and world-class facilities and services in key markets. The firm is uniquely positioned in East Africa, enabling global and regional customers to get direct access to all transoceanic and regional cable systems as well as interconnection to the group’s rapidly expanding network of carrier and cloud neutral data center facilities.
The company is built on the principles of carrier-neutrality, providing a platform that nurtures an open environment to give businesses the best options for connectivity and services, with excellent infrastructure and a connected eco-system, for the benefit of all clients.
As the firm nears commissioning of its first phase Data Centre in Addis in April, Capital’s Metasebia Teshome reached out to its CEO, Anthony Voscarides, for in depth insights of the company’s project. Anthony has over 25 years of international telecommunications experience working in Australia, Greece, Cyprus, UK, the Middle East and Africa. Excerpts;

Capital: What is a data center?
Anthony Voscarides: A data center is a facility that provides shared access to applications and data using a complex network, compute, and storage infrastructure. Industry standards exist to assist in designing, constructing, and maintaining data center facilities and infrastructures to ensure the data is both secure and highly available.
Data centers vary in size, from a small server room all the way up to groups of geographically distributed buildings, but they all share one thing in common: they are a critical business asset where companies often invest in and deploy the latest advancements in data center networking, compute and storage technologies.
The modern data center has evolved from a facility containing an on-premises infrastructure to one that connects on-premises systems with cloud infrastructures where networks, applications and workloads are virtualized in multiple private and public clouds.

Capital: What benefits could having datacenter locally gives to the country?
Anthony Voscarides: For many businesses today having a local data center just makes sense. It provides the infrastructure and security of a dedicated data center and companies enjoy the benefits of having their servers in the cloud while still maintaining physical control of their systems.
Today’s hardware needs certain cooling, conditioned power, backup generators, sophisticated security systems and the like, and each of these systems has its backup in case of failure. Thus having a local facility means, one can keep an eye on redundancies.
Moreover, the world keeps on integrating with technology. For instance, if Microsoft was to set up its firm here, it needs a suitable tech environment to do so and having local data centers bolsters that.
To give a good comparison, New York has more than 200 large scale data centers, whereas the total centers in Africa do not even reach this mark. Thus since more needs to be done on this front, having a local data center is a necessity, in order to have fast access to information.

Capital: Tell us about the whole facility of your data center, on what status is the construction? What makes your facility different from others?
Anthony Voscarides: Our data center is in Addis Ababa ICT Park, seated on a 15,000 square meters of land, and it allows us to deliver solutions to businesses requiring fortified server hosting for their critical services and operators.
It is a tier 3 facility which is designed to host up to 800 racks on competition of all phases with a maximum power requirement of up to 10 MW. The power delivery is via two separate sub stations and two physically separated feeds ensuring maximum availability. In the case of multiple utility failures, there are dual UPS and dual generators which will power the site without interruption until power is restored.
Data connectivity to the site will be supplied by in country ISP, Websprix and ethio telecom using multiple fiber paths. This ensures reliable customer access to the Ethiopian national and metro networks.
With regards to our current status, we are soon commissioning our center by the 20th of April this year, meaning everything will be tested and connected to go live to our first customers.
What makes us different is our commitment to Ethiopia, which is to provide a safe, secure and stable platform for the many talented Ethiopians, including young entrepreneurs with vision and ambition. To this end, the various government authorities have been very helpful to overcome challenges that we have faced. We are now on a good track to deliver the promised services.

Capital: How much did you invest in the project? Does your firm have plans on increasing investment within the country?
Anthony Voscarides: Our initial investment for the first two phases of the centers was about 26 million dollars. We plan on having four phases which means we will be increasing our investments in the country.
Currently, phase one in nearing commissioning on April whilst the second phase is to go live by the end of 2022. Moreover, we are planning on having at least one more facility outside Addis Ababa.

Capital: What benefits could your data center give to our country?
Anthony Voscarides: We have a lot of people locally that work with us through innovation. Our innovation center will be able to attract young talent to come and use servers that we have available for them to use for free as part of the programme to creating innovations here.
Ethiopia is a country that has existed from time immemorial, with a very special and unique ancient language. The country is comprised of a young population with a pool of talent and we seek to empower these talents by creating a data center that will nudge their dreams and aspirations.
The spectacular growth of the data center industry represents far more than just an industry success story: the reality behind it, and its explosion, represents a profound change in the way that we are living our lives and the way in which our societies are ordered. When looking at connectivity, the notion of speed of access is crucial, as opposed to the number of people connected. Thus we want to present a high speed of access to Ethiopians, which will mold faster innovations and better performances in doing work.
Moreover, our company is centered on helping the community. We look forward to helping the community where chances arise as well encourage the use of innovations.

Capital: Who are your targeted customers?
Anthony Voscarides: Any customer that requires connected access is our customer of choice. Currently, we have signed with five firms who are big on data access.

Capital: How are you going to work with telecommunication operators?
Anthony Voscarides: Each and every telecommunication operator is connected to a data center. We have been in talks with Ethio-telecom to use our centers and we will see how that progresses.
The benefits of having more than one data center is that if one fails the other one takes over, which in our industry is called redundancy.

Capital: How do you see the current development of the IT sector in Ethiopia?
Anthony Voscarides: Ethiopia has an amazing potential and energy with her innovative, youthful populations who have the enthusiasm to learn. Thus I see an exponential growth and the sector continues to expand and transform.

Capital: What makes your company different from other datacenter providing companies?
Anthony Voscarides: We provided services as a carrier neutral data centre, which operates neutrally as a public service. This means that nobody will take advantage of you, since everybody on the facility is treated equally. There is no form of favoritism.
We also bring our expertise from our success projects such as the Djibouti Data Center (DDC) which is the first and only Tier 3 carrier neutral data center ecosystem in east Africa with direct access to all major international and regional fiber optic cable systems connecting Europe, the Middle East, and Asia markets with East Africa. The DDC also operates the Djibouti Internet Exchange (DjIX), a neutral and independent Internet Exchange Point (IXP) in Africa. Both the DDC and DjIX are catalysts in East Africa that enable new applications and services that help to drive economic development and social well-being in the region. Thus we want to reflect the same in Ethiopia.
We also adhere to all security protocols as per the requirements of the government, in order to protect the crucial data of the country. In addition to that, we also provide physical security, such as cameras and biometrics so that nobody enters the facility un-identified.

Book depicting the life of Ethiopian birds’ launches, world celebrates French language day

Staff Reporter
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Book depicting the life of Ethiopian birds’ launches, world celebrates French language day

A book called Piafs d’addis written by Fre’deric Peire has been officially launched on Sunday March 20, 2022 at Zoma Museum. The book narrates about birds of Ethiopia and their life.
Fre’deric Peire is a French artist based in Addis Ababa having more than 10 years of experience on the sector. The book is written both in French and in Amharic language.
In related news on March 20, 2022, the 12th round of international French language Day has been celebrated at the UN Economic commission for Africa. In 2010, the United Nations Department of Public Information officially launched French Language Day to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity. This day is used to promote the equal use of the six official languages of the United Nations: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. There are more than 400 million speakers using this language on the five continents. The March 20 date is also recognized as the International Day of La Francophonie, which celebrates the anniversary of the Agency for Cultural and Technical Cooperation (ACCT), created on 20 March 1970. French is one of the two working languages of the United Nations.

Eurasia and the global economy

Alazar Kebede
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Eurasia and the global economy

It is true that any financial turmoil in China can create turbulence around the world and even hit New York. According to economic analysts, China could have avoided certain obvious mistakes which many saw coming. What the episode shows is how the relative weights are shifting in the world way beyond just trade.
The recent World Bank data reveals that China still accounts for less than 15% of global GDP, but its contribution to global growth last year was in the range of 40%. So when China’s growth slackens, pretty much every one around the world feels it. Not surprisingly, therefore, people all over the world are concerned about China’s prospects.
In a bid to build global-Asia connectivity, President Xi Jinping took an initiative of “One Belt, One Road”. The initiative is of huge importance, not as an immediate plan, but as a long-term approach toward China’s development. To begin with, George Yeo, the former Foreign Affairs Minister of Singapore stated that China has all excess capacity in steel, cement, factories producing rolling stock and so on which can be applied to great use linking China to its neighbors. This growing connectivity of China to its neighbors deep into Eurasia is a story of epic proportions.
Three years ago, China established a rail link to the Persian Gulf via Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran. With the opening of Iran, the dynamics across a large part of Asia will change. Throughout history, Imperial China and Imperial Persia, two high civilizations, always had good relations maintaining peace in the region. China, ever a comprehensive, long-term planner, is proposing or already executing enormous railroad expansion to the Gulf of Thailand, to the Andaman Sea, to the Arabian Gulf, to the Black Sea, to the Baltic Sea and all the way to the North Sea.
Back in 2016 China and Russia agreed in principle to build a fast train connecting Moscow and Beijing probably through Kazakhstan. The distance between these two cities is 7,000 km, and the journey is supposed to take less than two days. But all these calculations about the economic feasibility change profoundly if, along the way, one builds a belt of cities. This is why the words “One Belt, One Road”, announced by President Xi first in Astana in October 2013, and then in Jakarta in November 2013, are far more than a slogan.
According to George Yeo, they represent a strategic reorientation. “One Belt, One Road” goes way beyond being a plan on paper. It is intended to create a huge flow, a 21st century revival of the old overland and maritime silk roads, and at the end to find all of Eurasia crisscrossed by connections. Using a biological metaphor, the growth of these connections is like angiogenesis in the human body. First the vessels grow, then logistics companies provide the blood circulation and development of organs follows.
George Yeo stated that Eurasia is a large part of the world, and it will, in a few decades from now, be the principal driver of the global economy. China knows that to improve the productivity of its real economy, it must deepen and liberalize its capital markets. Despite the recent financial turmoil, this strategic intent to deepen capital markets will not be deflected. The Chinese are now attempting to create two separate oceans of renminbi, one within China, which is the much larger one, and another outside China of which London is determined to be a major financial center.
An important question here is why can’t China allow the internationalization of other currencies like other major countries? To understand this we have to go back to the long history of China and the difficulty of governing a large part of the world’s population. Professor Jay Ogilvy of Yale University explained that whoever governs China must always be able to exercise some control over its own internal destiny. In the second half of the 19th century, after the second opium war, western customs officers inspected any ship landing on the China coast. Professor Jay Ogilvy noted that by the late Qing dynasty, China had lost control of its monetary system and therefore an important part of its sovereignty. China will not allow this again.
What about fears that China will go into recession? According to Professor Jay Ogilvy, this is not likely. He explained that China’s growth will slow down, maybe to 6%, or even 5.5%, but is now on a very high base of a GDP of about $10 trillion. That the slowdown in China is causing alarm around the world is because of the lack of aggregate demand powering the global economy. Despite easy money in the last seven years, the global economy has still not performed well. Central bankers fear that if they withdraw the liquidity, asset markets will implode, bubbles will burst, and the real economy will spiral downwards.
Fareed Zakaria in his 2003 published book entitled “The Future of Freedom”. stated that China is probably the only major country in the world today which is able to exercise a national will on a range of subjects. This is principally because the economy is still in a late adolescent phase and partly because the political culture over the centuries accepts centralized governance. For example, when President Xi promulgates “One Belt, One Road,” the message percolates right down and funds are allocated. The countries involved know it is credible because it is backed by a strong national will.
There is much talk about the South China Sea becoming a flashpoint. It is true that the South China Sea is important, but it is not the most important issue. It is a trial of strength between the United States and China but one which both sides will be careful not to mismanage. The most important issue is still the global economy, because if we get that wrong, everything else is in danger.

Muzikawi organizes its first digital music concert

Staff Reporter
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Muzikawi organizes its first digital music concert

Muzikawi a new Ethiopian music company that aims to take Ethiopian creatives to the global market, said it has organized its first digital concert.
“After two successful seasons we are back with an updated season of Live & Close Up. We give you seven full concerts of finest quality. Opening this season we have none other than Esubalew Yetayew (Yeshi) going live on Muzikawi’s YouTube Channel on April 6th 2022,” the company said in its press statement.
“This season’s artist line-up is curated by the renowned composer and musician Jorga Mesfin. With him he brought some of Ethiopia’s most established musicians to accompany the artists exclusively for Live & Close Up,” the statement further reads.
The statement noted that Muzikawi is built on 17 years of experience in Ethiopian music culture combined with 25 years of international music industry experience.
“Every week from April 1st and throughout 2022 we will present 16 artists and more than 100 releases,” the company stated.
The concept started as a remedy to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the Ethiopian culture sector. A complete standstill of the local Ethiopian concert scene was one of the suffered consequences for both musicians and live audiences.
Muzikawi initiated Live & Close Up, a digital venue with doors open not only to Ethiopian music lovers but also to the world.

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