The first ICANN Managed Root Server (IMRS) cluster to be deployed in Africa is housed at Africa Data Centres, a division of the pan-African technology company Cassava Technologies.
In line with the Cassava group’s goal of a digitally inclusive Africa, ICANN intends for the IMRS cluster deployment to help Internet users in Africa have quicker access to services on the Internet and better protection from cyberattacks.
A new ICANN Managed Root Server (IMRS) cluster is being set up in Africa, in Nairobi, Kenya, according to a recent announcement from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and its regional partners. The Domain Name System (DNS) is managed by ICANN, a global non-profit organisation that is essential to maintaining a safe, interoperable, and universal Internet.
Any nation, territory, or area of the world that uses DNS infrastructure can benefit from an IMRS cluster. It is essential for boosting Internet access and enhancing its stability. In Africa, the IMRS cluster will lessen the effects of potential cyberattacks. Distributed denial-of-service attacks, one of the most prevalent types of attacks, work by flooding servers with requests or Internet traffic. Higher bandwidth and data processing power are provided by IMRS clusters to reduce some of that traffic.
ICANN has chosen Africa Data Centres to host the IMRS cluster at their world-class Kenya data centre facility. Five IMRS clusters exist worldwide, with two in North America, one each in Europe, Asia, and 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.
Africa’s reliance on networks and servers in other parts of the world is reduced by installing this IMRS cluster, which makes it possible for the continent to respond to Internet queries locally. The IMRS cluster also increases local, state, and regional resilience by facilitating local root server traffic.