As the race to build data centres in South Africa continues, Teraco today announced the completion of the first phase of JB4, its new hyperscale data centre addition to the Bredell Campus, Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.
In a statement, the vendor-neutral data centre and interconnection platform provider says the new facility supports the growing demand by enterprises and cloud providers for data centre capacity.
The completion comes after the acquisition of Teraco by US-based Digital Realty earlier this year.
Teraco notes that JB4 offers highly-resilient and secure colocation facilities in line with Teraco’s long-term vision of enabling digital transformation across Africa.
The news follows hot on the heels of Dimension Data parent company NTT last week officially opening its latest data centre, also based in Johannesburg.
In July, Vantage Data Centres, a US-based provider of hyperscale data centre campuses, also opened its data centre facility in Johannesburg, which it dubs JNB11.
IDC estimates public cloud services adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa will accelerate at a compound annual growth rate of 25% year-on-year between 2020 and 2025.
The growth in Africa’s cloud sector is leading to more international players choosing to invest in the market.
Since 2019, SA has seen an influx of tech companies investing in local data centres, including hyperscalers like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, as well as the likes of Teraco, Dimension Data and Huawei, among others.
Teraco notes that as one of Africa’s economic powerhouses, Gauteng (the greater Johannesburg Metropole) is a logical destination for the company’s continued investment in data centre infrastructure on the continent.
Home to digitally-connected enterprises, including telecommunications, financial services, e-commerce, logistics and retail, the Johannesburg Metropole benefits from its enviable location in the heart of Southern Africa, which has led to it becoming the hub for connectivity and peering, says the firm.
It adds that JB4 represents a strategic addition to Platform Teraco, offering enterprises and cloud providers a scalable platform for IT infrastructure deployment, while sustaining performance, reliability, security and the most comprehensive network choice.
The first phase of JB4 comprises 30 000sqm of building structure, 8 000sqm of data hall space and 19-megawatts (MW) of critical power load.
Teraco says it has secured adjacent land and power for phase two expansion, bringing the total critical power load in the facility to 50MW at the end state.
According to the firm, the JB4 addition to Teraco’s growing data centre platform takes critical power load capacity at Teraco facilities to 126MW, which includes the Isando Campus JB1/JB3 (40MW), Bredell Campus JB2/JB4 (64MW), Cape Town Campus CT1/CT2 (21MW) and Durban (1MW).
This data centre facility dramatically extends Platform Teraco’s capacity in South Africa, according to Jan Hnizdo, CEO of Teraco. “Forming a vital part of the African IT landscape, Platform Teraco is an essential part of the modern enterprise’s digital transformation strategy with its diverse industry ecosystems and open interconnection marketplace.”
JB4 is connected to all the other Teraco data centres through the diverse ecosystem of network operators in the facility, making it ideal for the distributed interconnection-defined architecture of the modern enterprise, the company says.
Hnizdo says the majority of enterprise organisations are accelerating their digital transformation strategies and placing a greater focus on cloud adoption strategies.
“Enterprises are looking for the ability to scale as network strategies evolve, and in a world where fast and secure interconnection with strategic business partners is a priority, this is a source of competitive advantage.”
Hnizdo points out that the company continues to see significant growth as hyperscale requirements expand due to increased demand for cloud services in Africa.
“The continued increase of cloud adoption in Africa is also being enabled by investments in critical infrastructure, including hyperscale data centre facilities such as JB4. This will enable global cloud clients to service the South African market and the rest of the Sub-Saharan African region.”
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