Understanding Regions and Data Centers
Lineserve Cloud operates multiple data centers across Africa, allowing you to choose where your infrastructure and data are physically located. This choice affects:
Performance: Lower latency for users closer to the data center
Compliance: Meet regional data residency requirements
Redundancy: Build multi-region architectures for high availability
Cost: Pricing may vary slightly by region
Available Data Center Regions
East Africa
Nairobi, Kenya (ke-nbo-1)
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Availability Zones: 3
Network: Direct fiber connections to undersea cables (SEACOM, EASSy)
Best for:
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda markets
East African regional applications
Financial services (M-Pesa integration)
E-commerce and fintech startups
Regulatory Compliance:
Kenya Data Protection Act (DPA) 2019
EAC data sovereignty regulations
Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) guidelines
Latency:
Nairobi: <1ms
Kampala: 15-25ms
Dar es Salaam: 20-30ms
Kigali: 20-30ms
Addis Ababa: 40-50ms
West Africa
Lagos, Nigeria (ng-los-1)
Location: Lagos, Nigeria
Availability Zones: 3
Network: MainOne, ACE submarine cable connections
Best for:
Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast markets
West African regional applications
Banking and financial services
Media and content delivery
Large-scale e-commerce
Regulatory Compliance:
Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR)
NITDA guidelines
CBN regulations for financial data
Latency:
Lagos: <1ms
Accra: 15-20ms
Abidjan: 25-35ms
Dakar: 40-50ms
Southern Africa
Johannesburg, South Africa (za-jnb-1)
Location: Johannesburg, South Africa
Availability Zones: 3
Network: SEACOM, SAT-3/WASC connections
Best for:
South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe markets
Southern African Development Community (SADC) applications
Enterprise and corporate workloads
Mining and resource sector applications
Regulatory Compliance:
Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA)
SADC data protection guidelines
Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) regulations
Latency:
Johannesburg: <1ms
Cape Town: 10-15ms
Gaborone: 15-20ms
Windhoek: 20-30ms
Harare: 25-35ms
North Africa
Cairo, Egypt (eg-cai-1)
Location: Cairo, Egypt
Availability Zones: 2
Network: TE North, SEA-ME-WE submarine cable connections
Best for:
Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia markets
North African regional applications
Middle East connectivity
Government and public sector applications
Regulatory Compliance:
Egypt Data Protection Law
Arab League data guidelines
GDPR compliance for EU connectivity
Latency:
Cairo: <1ms
Alexandria: 5-10ms
Casablanca: 50-60ms
Tunis: 40-50ms
How to Choose Your Region
1. Consider Your Target Audience
Question: Where are most of your users or customers located?
Choose the closest region to minimize latency
Rule of thumb: Select a region within 500km of your user base
Example: If serving Kenya and Uganda, choose Nairobi
2. Review Regulatory Requirements
Question: Do you have data residency or sovereignty requirements?
Key Regulations:
Financial Services
Kenya: Financial data must remain in Kenya (CBK directive)
Nigeria: Banking data must be stored locally (CBN regulation)
South Africa: POPIA requires data subject consent for cross-border transfers
Government & Public Sector
Most African governments require public sector data to remain in-country
Check specific ministry or agency guidelines
Healthcare
Patient data typically must remain within country borders
HIPAA-equivalent regulations in most countries
3. Evaluate Network Connectivity
Question: What connectivity do you need?
International traffic: All regions have submarine cable connections
Intra-Africa traffic: Consider terrestrial fiber routes
Peering: Check Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) availability
4. Consider Cost
Question: What is your budget?
Pricing is standardized across most regions
Bandwidth costs may vary by region
Intra-region traffic is usually cheaper than inter-region
5. Plan for High Availability
Question: Do you need disaster recovery or multi-region redundancy?
Primary + Secondary: Choose two regions for failover
Active-Active: Deploy in multiple regions simultaneously
Backup: Store backups in a different region
Region Selection Decision Matrix
Your Situation | Recommended Region | Secondary Region |
Serving Kenyan market | Nairobi | Johannesburg |
Serving Nigerian market | Lagos | Nairobi |
Serving South African market | Johannesburg | Lagos or Nairobi |
East African region | Nairobi | Johannesburg |
West African region | Lagos | Cairo |
Pan-African application | Lagos or Nairobi | Johannesburg |
Financial services (Kenya) | Nairobi (required) | N/A |
Financial services (Nigeria) | Lagos (required) | N/A |
Setting Your Primary Region
During Account Creation
When creating your account, you'll be asked to select a primary region
Review the options and map
Select the region closest to your users
Click "Continue"
Note: This is just your default region. You can deploy resources in any region.
Changing Your Primary Region
To change your primary region after account creation:
Log in to console.lineserve.com
Go to Account Settings → Regional Settings
Select "Change Primary Region"
Choose new region from dropdown
Click "Update"
Impact:
Existing resources remain in their current regions
New resources default to the new primary region
Billing remains unchanged
No downtime for existing infrastructure
Multi-Region Deployment Strategies
Active-Passive (Disaster Recovery)
Setup:
Primary region: Active production workload
Secondary region: Standby infrastructure
Automatic failover in case of regional outage
Best for: Business continuity, compliance requirements
Active-Active (High Availability)
Setup:
Multiple regions: All active simultaneously
Load balancer distributes traffic geographically
Database replication across regions
Best for: Global applications, maximum uptime
Data Localization
Setup:
Deploy separate instances in each regulated market
Keep data within country borders
Shared application logic, isolated data
Best for: Financial services, healthcare, government
Data Sovereignty and Compliance
What is Data Sovereignty?
Data sovereignty means your data is subject to the laws of the country where it's physically stored.
Lineserve's Data Sovereignty Guarantees
Physical location: We guarantee data stays in the selected region
No cross-border transfers: Without your explicit permission
Backup retention: Backups remain in the same region by default
Support access: Support staff require authorization to access production data
Compliance certifications: ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCI DSS per region
Data Processing Agreements
For compliance-sensitive workloads:
Review our Data Processing Agreement (DPA)
Contact [email protected] for custom DPAs
Specify data residency requirements
Request audit rights if needed
Network Performance
Measuring Latency
Test latency from your location to each region:
Visit speedtest.lineserve.com
Run tests to all available regions
Compare latency results
Choose region with lowest latency
Using Region Ping Tool
Test via command line:
# Nairobi ping ke-nbo-1.lineserve.com# Lagos ping ng-los-1.lineserve.com# Johannesburg ping za-jnb-1.lineserve.com# Cairo ping eg-cai-1.lineserve.com
Region-Specific Features
Availability Zones
Each region contains multiple isolated availability zones (AZs):
Nairobi: 3 AZs
Lagos: 3 AZs
Johannesburg: 3 AZs
Cairo: 2 AZs
Deploy across multiple AZs for high availability within a region.
Service Availability
All core services are available in all regions:
✅ Cloud Servers (ECS)
✅ VPS Hosting
✅ Block Storage
✅ Object Storage
✅ Managed Databases
✅ Load Balancers
✅ Cloud Firewall
✅ CDN
Beta/Preview Services may be region-specific. Check documentation for details.
Pricing Considerations
Compute and Storage
Pricing is standardized across regions with minor variations:
Compute pricing: Same across all regions
Storage pricing: Same across all regions
Bandwidth pricing: May vary up to 10% by region
Data Transfer Costs
Intra-region: Free between resources in same region
Inter-region: $0.02/GB between African regions
Outbound international: Varies by destination, see pricing page
Inbound: Always free
Need Help Deciding?
Our solutions architects can help you choose the right region:
Email: [email protected]
Schedule Call: Contact Sales
Live Chat: Available 24/7 in the console
Next Steps
After selecting your region:
Complete your account setup
Add a payment method
Deploy your first cloud server
Configure backups to secondary region (optional)
Set up multi-region architecture (if needed)
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