After installing two fiber optic cables in Fortaleza (the Monet, which goes to the United States; and the SACS, which connects with Luanda and was the first to cross the South Atlantic), Angola Cables, a submarine cable operator, is finalizing the construction of its Data Center in the capital of Ceará, the Angonap, which will be the first one of the company in Brazil. The inauguration, scheduled for next April 16, should immediately impact the local economy with the creation of more than 600 jobs, direct and indirect.
“20 days until the inauguration of AngoNAP Fortaleza. Designed for scalable growth, the data center will feature colocation, cross-connect, cloud, gaming services, as well as direct connection with SACS and Monet cables.”
With its privileged location, Fortaleza is a very attractive place to install these cables, however, the benefits of this position were not yet well used. According to the Angola Cables CEO, António Nunes, the city is already the second largest submarine cable hub in the world, but these only use the city as a crossing point, losing “the possibility of having an effective point of regional connectivity “.
“It is also a worldwide tendency for submarine cables to terminate directly in data centers in order to avoid third-party terrestrial routes, thus making the connectivity business partially unfeasible. In this way, owners of submarine cables that are installed directly in Data Centers such as Fortaleza can connect directly to their infrastructure to other international and national connection systems, gaining efficiency,” explains Nunes.
Angonap Fortaleza will be installed in an area of 9 thousand m², with a floor space of 3 thousand m² and TIER III certification, second highest level of international certification for data centers. Another specification of the data center is that it will be neutral, thus being able to receive cables from all companies that wish to be there, provided they are within the technical and commercial requirements to be defined by Angola Cables.
“We are building a data center that will be an international benchmark from the point of view of connectivity. Moreover, having such an infrastructure in a region that is developing its digital economy is undoubtedly a great potential for generating value,” argues the CEO of Angola Cables.
Having such an infrastructure in a region that is developing its digital economy is undoubtedly a great potential for generating value
With the new data center, the company expects all content providers in the Northeast region of Brazil to be connected. “A neutral Data Center has several advantages in a growing digital development market. If we consider that all the agents of the market become more and more digital and that to support this economic development they need Data Centers, then the advantages are evident,” emphasizes Nunes.
“Without a doubt, the city of Fortaleza will be a great center of connectivity throughout the country, as it will expand the points of traffic exchange,” said Professor Clauson Rios of the Federal Institute of Education, Science, and Technology of Ceará (IFCE).
“The number of potential domestic and international customers will increase greatly due to the adhesion of companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. With the infrastructure of this hub in Fortaleza, global Internet providers will be interested and expand the content trafficked,” affirms the professor.
Also read: The South Atlantic: new route for undersea cables
With this infrastructure, the region is expected to become an information exporter, expanding its potential for economic growth.
“Brazil and Angola have had business relations since the 1970s. Our goal is to create an environment that benefits and further broadens these ties. We are collaborating in the internationalization of Brazil, through this digital bridge. In addition, the Angola Cables network will create business opportunities between Africa and the Americas, which until then needed intermediation in Europe. These innovative and alternative routes through the Southern Hemisphere will bring companies and businesses closer to these regions, which are in a phase of global growth,” concludes António Nunes.