Cabo Verde Digital - Data Centers

Expanding Cabo Verde's Government Cloud

As Cabo Verde accelerates its transition from an archipelagic state to a "Cyber Island," the government is fundamentally overhauling the engine room of its public administration. Central to the country's Digital Economy Strategy (EEDCV) is a massive expansion of data center capabilities designed to support a migration to cloud computing. This shift towards a "Government Cloud" is not merely a technical upgrade; it is a strategic maneuver to ensure digital sovereignty, reduce public spending, and position the country as a secure data harbor for the West African region.

The Shift to "Government Cloud"

For over two decades, the Operational Nucleus for the Information Society (NOSi) has led the country's digital governance, developing over 100 e-government solutions. However, to meet the targets of the Cabo Verde Ambition 2030 plan—which aims for a 25% GDP contribution from the digital sector—the infrastructure supporting these services required a generational leap.

The government is transitioning from traditional on-premise servers to a robust Government Cloud architecture. This transition allows public bodies to shift from a capital-heavy expenditure model to an operational one, sharing the costs of technological infrastructure and maintenance. The Government Cloud platform allows various institutions to acquire Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Backup/Restore services, modernizing business support systems with greater agility, efficiency, and data security.

A key innovation in this expansion is the integration of blockchain technology. NOSi is currently working to implement a government cloud based on blockchain to enhance the security and immutability of public records. This move aligns with the broader strategy to migrate legacy technological solutions to the open-source IGRP (Integrated Government Resource Planning) framework, ensuring that the state's digital backbone is flexible, scalable, and secure.

Infrastructure Expansion: The TechPark Data Centers

The physical manifestation of this cloud strategy is the construction of world-class data center facilities within the Cabo Verde Technology Park (TechPark CV). Inaugurated in May 2025 with financing from the African Development Bank, the park acts as the physical host for the expanding cloud.

The expansion creates a dual-node system for high redundancy:

1. Praia Campus (Santiago): This hub hosts a state-of-the-art data center designed to Tier III equivalent standards. It serves as the primary node for government data and commercial clients, benefiting from direct fiber connections to the EllaLink submarine cable.
2. Mindelo Campus (São Vicente): Crucially, the government has established a secondary facility in Mindelo to serve as a Disaster Recovery Site. Given the archipelago's exposure to climate risks and logistical isolation, this redundancy ensures business continuity for the state in the event of a failure at the primary site.

This infrastructure is further supported by the World Bank's Digital Cabo Verde Project, which has allocated additional financing specifically to "expand the present government cloud" and strengthen the country's digital public infrastructure (DPI).

One Cloud, One Lake, One Platform

To operationalize this expansion, Cabo Verde has partnered with global technology providers like Huawei to implement a "One Cloud, One Lake, One Platform" architecture. This approach integrates:

• One Cloud: A converged resource pool for unified management.
• One Lake: A data lake to aggregate and process the full lifecycle of government data.
• One Platform: An application-enabling platform to help agencies quickly innovate services.

This architecture has allowed NOSi to expand from an initial 200 Virtual Machines (VMs) to over 1,000 VMs, significantly boosting storage and processing capacity to meet the demands of a paperless administration.

Background

The "One Cloud, One Lake, One Platform" architecture is a unified digital framework that centralizes computing, data, and applications. One Cloud provides scalable, reliable infrastructure; One Lake stores all structured and unstructured data in a single repository for analytics and AI; and One Platform offers standardized tools and interfaces for application development and service delivery. This architecture enhances integration, efficiency, security, scalability, and innovation, enabling governments and organizations to implement data-driven policies and smart digital services. 

Digital Sovereignty and Regional Ambitions

By owning and managing its cloud infrastructure, Cabo Verde reduces reliance on external third-party providers for critical state functions.

The expansion of data center capabilities is driven by a doctrine of Digital Sovereignty. The government explicitly states that national digital assets must be preserved sovereignly, ensuring technical skills from research to production remain within the country. By owning and managing its cloud infrastructure, Cabo Verde reduces reliance on external third-party providers for critical state functions.

 Creating a new export model

However, the ambition extends beyond domestic needs. The government intends to monetize this excess capacity by positioning Cabo Verde as a secure data hub for the ECOWAS region. NOSi already provides data center hosting and e-government services for neighboring countries, including Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, and Burkina Faso. The expanded capacity at TechPark CV is designed to scale this export model, offering secure, low-latency hosting to African nations seeking a neutral digital jurisdiction compliant with European data protection standards.

Green and Secure

Finally, the data center expansion is aligned with Cabo Verde's energy transition goals. The strategy mandates the strengthening of data centers not only in terms of capacity but also sustainability. Investments are being made to integrate renewable energy sources, such as solar photovoltaic solutions, to power these facilities, aiming to reduce energy costs by 30% to 40% and minimize the carbon footprint of the country's digital leap.

By combining state-of-the-art physical infrastructure with a sophisticated government cloud strategy, Cabo Verde is effectively building the "digital nervous system" required to run a modern state and a competitive digital economy in the middle of the Atlantic.