INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cabling
Traffic through Africa ’ s Internet Exchange Point , NAPAfrica reaches 4.5Tbps with 652 peering enterprises
NAPAfrica , Africa ’ s Internet Exchange Point , IXP and the seventh largest IXP globally , has reached a significant milestone , driving 4.5Tbps of traffic as its peering community continues to grow . Adding to its existing members , including Akamai , Amazon , Apple , ByteDance , TikTok , CDN77 , Cloudflare , Facebook , Meta , Google , Microsoft , and Netflix , are Mimecast , Fortinet and Tencent , cementing NAPAfrica ’ s position as a critical digital infrastructure hub for Africa ’ s Internet .
NAPAfrica has expanded its peering community by over 40 peers over the last year to 652 unique organisations , solidifying its role as the heartbeat of African Internet traffic . Based in Teraco ’ s data centres in Cape Town , Durban , and Johannesburg , serving the peering needs of Internet operators across Africa , the exchange crossed the 4Tbps mark in November 2023 and has since expanded to support a diverse and ever-growing network of local and global peers .
Peering is the bedrock of this success , offering a cost-effective , high-performance way for content providers and businesses to deliver content to end users efficiently . By interconnecting directly with other networks , NAPAfrica members benefit from reduced latency , faster delivery speeds , and significant cost savings , all critical factors for companies as demand for cloud and entertainment services in Africa skyrockets .
NAPAfrica is also empowering its members by introducing the Kentik Network Observability platform , a state-of-theart tool that provides critical insights into network performance . With Kentik , peering managers , network engineers , and security teams can better manage traffic , optimise performance , and predict capacity needs , which results in even smoother content delivery and improved network resilience .
NAPAfrica is now hosting regional cache servers , significantly enhancing regional content delivery . NAPAfrica also hosts Netflix Open Connect cache servers in Cape Town and Durban . By reducing the distance data must travel , this initiative enables faster load times for local audiences , enriching the local user experience while making participation even more attractive for new members .
With critical infrastructure in place , NAPAfrica is fuelling Africa ’ s digital future , providing the backbone for Internet services and cloud adoption . It ’ s a partnership-driven model that ensures organisations can support
Internet communication , cloud strategies , and enhanced connectivity , all crucial as Africa ’ s demand for digital services continues to climb .
“ This ongoing growth is a testament to Africa ’ s vibrant Internet community , which has embraced peering , data-intensive applications , cloud adoption , and the rising demand for video , content , and gaming services ,” says Andrew Owens , Interconnection and Peering Lead at Teraco .
“ Higher traffic levels between cloud providers , enterprises , and end users highlight how essential peering is in accelerating digital transformation across the continent . Our mission is to equip our clients with a seamless , reliable infrastructure to serve their communities effectively across Africa .”
NAPAfrica is Africa ’ s interconnection platform , supporting a diverse ecosystem of global carriers , cloud providers , CDNs , ISPs , enterprises and digital services p
On the back of growth in traffic volumes , NAPAfrica continues to evolve its service offerings . In a significant technology leap , NAPAfrica is now the first Internet Exchange in Africa to offer 400Gbps interconnect options , catering to the needs of large-scale content providers and cloud service providers .
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