FEATURE

MÉTISS is a 3,200 km subsea fibre optic cable system connecting South Africa to the Indian Ocean islands of Madagascar , Reunion and Mauritius . The MÉTISS consortium comprises Canal + Télécom , CEB Fibernet , Emtel , Zeop and SRR ( SFR ) Telma . The MÉTISS cable lands in Amanzimtoti and is backhauled by Liquid Telecoms to Teraco ’ s data centre in Durban ( DB1 ).

With MÉTISS , consortium members having infrastructure in both the Teraco Durban ( DB1 ) and Johannesburg ( JB1 ) data centre facilities , the Indian Ocean Islands have direct access to Teraco ’ s ecosystem of over 300 networks , 130 IT service providers , 50 global content providers and the key global cloud providers , says Michele McCann , Head of Interconnection and Peering at Teraco . The availability of a new cable servicing the Indian Ocean Islands region widens the addressable market for content and cloud providers in South Africa . It adds new resilience to the existing telecommunications infrastructure .

MÉTISS provides global telecoms organisations , multinationals and enterprises with interests in the region with the reliable services and capacities to empower their digital strategies .

Situated on Durban ’ s north coast , Teraco DB1 is a strategic interconnection hub on the African subsea cable map with access to MÉTISS and the cable systems of Seacom and EASSy that are already accessible from the facility . Teraco ’ s DB1 facility is connected to the JB1 Campus in Isando , Johannesburg through a wide choice of carriers , via diverse regional fibre routes . It will allow clients to increase the number of partners they connect with and expand their reach into new markets . Teraco ’ s DB1 facility offers clients secure colocation and interconnection services , as well as the ability to leverage Teraco ’ s digital hubs in DB1 and JB1 directly .

“ The cable brings connectivity across regions that were previously hard to reach . Through Teraco , access to this cable is an interconnect away and in keeping with our tagline , ‘ the world connects here ’. We are very proud to play such a pivotal role in the success of this cable system ,” said McCann .

Peering at Africa ’ s largest Internet exchange , NAPAfrica , is now also possible for the island region and brings many benefits : reduced latency ; network fault tolerance ; reliable exchange of traffic ; increased routing control ; and improved network performance .

Interconnection and peering successfully addresses a growing need for more bandwidth but at the lowest possible latency . This also needs to be done cost-effectively . The MÉTISS cable system will enable further interconnection within the Indian Ocean Islands region and the growth of its digital economy . Teraco makes it easy and accessible for everyone to connect within the data centre and immediately benefit .

Alongside Teraco , Africa Data Centres is also laying the foundations of a more digital future – particularly in Nigeria – with its recent announcement of its 10MW Lagos Data Centre build .

Nigeria is a key African market , says Stephane Duproz , CEO of Africa Data Centres . “ This region is hungry for www . intelligentdatacentres . com

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