As competition in South Africa’s data centre market continues to intensify, Africa Data Centres (ADC), a business of Cassava Technologies, has announced it is expanding its CPT1 facility in Cape Town.
In a statement, ADC says it is adding three new halls in new areas on the campus and another 6MW of IT load, effectively doubling the facility’s current capacity.
The expansion was implemented with support from the US through an up to $300 million (R5.5 billion) loan from the US International Development Finance Corporation to Africa Data Centres, it says.
In June, Africa Data Centres secured R2 billion in funding, with plans to increase its data centre capacity in South Africa. The funding was facilitated through a bespoke financing solution arranged by Rand Merchant Bank.
The firm’s expansion of the CPT1 facility comes as local and international data centre providers invest heavily in the South African market.
South Africa’s geographical position at the southern tip of the continent makes it a strategic hub for regional and international connectivity. It serves as a gateway to other African markets, as well as connecting Africa to Europe, the Americas and Asia.
As one of the most developed and diversified economies in Africa, South Africa has the financial resources and a stable environment conducive to large-scale investments in data centre facilities.
Influx of players
According to a report by Mordor Intelligence, the South African data centre market is estimated at 434.86MW in 2024, and is expected to reach 828.93MW by 2029, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 13.77% during the forecast period.
It says the South African data centre market is moderately consolidated, with the top five companies occupying 48.86% of the market share.
Companies such as Digital Realty-owned Teraco, Vantage Data Centres, Open Access Data Centres and Equinix have all been expanding their data centre footprint in SA, while hyperscalers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure have also built local data centre facilities.
Chinese-based e-commerce giant Alibaba also recently entered the South African data centre market via a partnership with Telkom subsidiary BCX.
ADC operates a network of hyperscale and edge data centres across Southern, East and West Africa.
The company owns three data centres in South Africa – in Midrand (JHB1), Centurion (JHB2) and Elfindale, Cape Town (CPT1). Its fourth data centre (CPT2) is expected to go live this year.
According to Hardy Pemhiwa, president and group CEO of Cassava: “This expansion by Africa Data Centres is in response to the increasing demand for co-location capacity in South Africa. Not only is Cape Town the second-largest economy in South Africa, but it is also the de facto software and technology hub in Southern Africa.”
The company says it is seeing tremendous growth in the data centre market in SA generally, as national and international cloud and IT service providers seek to expand their footprints in the region.
ADC says the expansion adds 1 000 racks of white space − the space available for organisations to lease. It is made up of two more co-location data halls and one hyperscale hall.
It explains that the additional halls are modular, which enables scalability and a modern design that allows the facility to be populated as and when required. Additionally, this data centre has hybrid cooling technology capable of handling air cooling and liquid cooling.
It is powered by renewable energy, has a water usage effectiveness of zero due to no water consumption for the IT infrastructure, and a power usage effectiveness rating as well, says the firm.
Renewable power
The CPT1 facility enables wheeled solar power in the market, it adds. This is enabled through a 20-year power purchase agreement signed in March last year with Distributed Power Africa, also part of the Cassava Technologies group.
“The introduction of wheeled solar power at the CPT1 facility offers significant benefits to our customers, providing a truly sustainable data centre solution. As the demand for data continues to skyrocket across Africa, a continent where power supply is often intermittent, the need for reliable, cost-effective and green power has never been more critical,” says Finhai Munzara, interim CEO of ADC.
He notes that by harnessing renewable energy, the CPT1 facility ensures consistent power supply and also supports sustainable operations, helping customers achieve their environmental goals. “Our facility reduces reliance on non-renewable energy sources, setting a new standard for sustainability in the data centre industry.”
Munzara adds that Cape Town is an excellent location for co-location facilities, as it is a stone’s throw away from all the submarine cable landing stations.
The Cape Town facility houses the Cape Town Internet Exchange, which makes multi-region peering more accessible, efficient and easy to manage, he comments. This also facilitates direct connections between networks, enabling data to flow more efficiently and reducing latency, giving users a faster, more responsive online experience.
Munzara says the expansion is an integral part of its investment plans to deliver several additional data facilities across the continent.
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