Africa Data Centres has been approved to be the colocation provider for the first ICANN Managed Root Server (IMRS) cluster deployed in Africa. The IMRS cluster deployment is intended by ICANN to assist Internet users in Africa to have faster access to services on the Internet and better protection from cyberattacks, which is aligned with the Cassava group’s vision of a digitally inclusive Africa.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), in cooperation with its regional partners, recently announced that it is deploying a new ICANN Managed Root Server (IMRS) cluster in Africa, located in Nairobi, Kenya. ICANN is a global non-profit organisation that coordinates the Domain Name System (DNS) and plays a key role in ensuring a global, interoperable and secure Internet.
An IMRS cluster helps improve DNS infrastructure in any country, territory, or region of the world. It is key to stimulating Internet access and strengthening Internet stability. The IMRS cluster will reduce the impact of potential cyberattacks across Africa. One of the most common types of attacks, distributed denial-of-service attacks, works by overwhelming servers with a flood of queries or Internet traffic. IMRS clusters provide higher bandwidth and data processing capacity to alleviate some of that traffic.
Africa Data Centres has been selected by ICANN as the host of the IMRS cluster at their class-leading Kenya data centre facility. There are five IMRS clusters worldwide, two in North America, one in Europe, one in Asia, and the newest in Africa.
“Improving users’ access to the Internet in Africa, and their safety while using it, is part of ICANN’s mission to help make the Internet more secure, stable, and resilient across the world,” said Göran Marby, ICANN President and CEO. “The installation of this new IMRS cluster would not have been possible without the participation of the local community. We are grateful to the Kenyan government for its support and commitment to advancing Internet accessibility across Africa.”
“Africa Data Centres is proud to have been selected as the colocation provider for the first African IMRS cluster. This recognises the quality of the Africa Data Centres facilities but also our shared commitment with ICANN and its local partners to a digitally inclusive Africa. Africa Data Centres recognises the contributions of these local partners and specifically the Ministry for Information, Communications and the Digital Economy – Republic of Kenya, the Communications Authority of Kenya and the Technology Service Providers of Kenya, whose Kenya Internet exchange point (KIXP) is also hosted at Africa Data Centres’ facility,” said Tesh Durvalsula the Chief Executive Officer of Africa Data Centres.
Installing this IMRS cluster in Africa ensures that Internet queries can be answered within the region, which limits its dependence on networks and servers in other parts of the world. The IMRS cluster also boosts national and regional resiliency by helping root server traffic stay local.