It is on 20 February 2025 that ST Digital (Digital Transformation Solution) organized a breakfast event in Abidjan-Cocody, bringing together IT experts, business leaders, and digital professionals. The theme of this gathering focused on the benefits of colocation for Ivorian companies.
What is data center colocation?
Colocation, a concept still underutilised in Côte d'Ivoire, represents a strategic opportunity for companies seeking to optimise their IT infrastructure. This data hosting model enables businesses to outsource their servers and telecommunications equipment to a secure, high-performance data center. They also retain full control over their IT systems.
Lhe colocation of data center simplifies the lives of IT directors and relieves the company at several levels. For Marius Koffi, head of the IT department of l'ONECI (Office national de l'état civil et de l'identification), "colocation addresses a need for capacity and management". "In addition to this, ST Digital is offering us security and connection availability. It remains to be seen whether the costs will be affordable", he questioned. Of course, the cost of this solution is one of its advantages, replied the ST Digital executives.
Why adopt colocation in Côte d'Ivoire?
Joël Nlepe, Chief Customer Officer of ST Digital, explains. One of the main attractions of colocation is its reduced cost compared to the investment required to build and maintain an in-house data center. It costs between 4 and 5 billion to build an efficient data center that meets international standards. A sum that is not within the reach of all companies. The alternative is colocation. Companies pay only for the space used and their energy consumption.
Another benefit highlighted is the improvement of security and IT performance. Indeed, colocation allows, according to Joël Nlepe, organisations to adjust their space and computing power needs in line with their growth. In addition to advanced security guarantees, as an added value, ST Digital ensures the sovereignty of its data centre, meaning that stored data is hosted locally, without replication outside, except upon client request. "Colocation allows companies to focus on their core business, while benefiting from a secure, high-performance and scalable infrastructure," added Steve Tchouga, CEO of ST Digital.