Less than a week after the completion of the first phase of its JB4 data centre in Johannesburg, Teraco today announced construction has commenced at a new hyperscale data centre facility with 30 megawatts (MW) of critical power load at its Isando Campus in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.
In a statement, the vendor-neutral data centre provider says the facility, known as JB5, is scheduled for completion in 2024 and will incorporate the latest environmentally-sustainable cooling and water management designs.
Breaking ground at JB5 comes after CEO Jan Hnizdo last week told ITWeb that the company is looking to expand its data centre footprint in SA and across the African continent since US-based Digital Realty bought the company in August last year.
Hnizdo says the company continues with solid growth as enterprise and hyperscale requirements continue apace due to sustained demand for hybrid cloud deployments and the adoption of cloud services in Africa.
“South Africa is a springboard for cloud provision into Africa and, as a result, has become the technology and data centre hub for Sub-Saharan Africa. Massive global investments in undersea cables, like Equiano and 2Africa, further strengthen this position. This will enable global cloud providers to service not only the South African market but also the rest of the Sub-Saharan African region.
“Teraco is committed to growing its capacity footprint across its core hubs. We ensure our clients have the flexibility to scale and take advantage of the digital transformation across Sub-Saharan Africa. We continue to invest significantly in the region’s ICT infrastructure and have built Africa’s largest data centre platform. We take pride in enabling open access interconnection and providing world-class data centre infrastructure for all our clients,” says Hnizdo.
The JB5 facility is Teraco’s eighth data centre development located in the heart of Ekurhuleni’s Aerotropolis.
It is here that Teraco’s data centres already provide access to a wide choice of network service providers, peering at NAPAfrica, regional IXPs, content delivery networks and cloud provider onramps.
Hnizdo says this expansion aims to further support Sub-Saharan enterprises by advancing their digital transformation strategies and enabling global cloud providers to expand their footprints – spurring innovation.
According to Teraco, JB5 has been designed to put sustainability first and minimise its environmental footprint.
It notes JB5 will incorporate the latest state-of-the-art cooling designs − a closed-loop chilled water system that incorporates 100% free air cooling.
JB5 is the latest expansion to Teraco’s growing data centre platform and takes critical power load capacity at Teraco facilities to 156MW, which includes the Isando Campus facilities; JB1/JB3/JB5 (70MW), Bredell Campus JB2/JB4 (64MW), Cape Town Campus CT1/CT2 (21MW) and Durban (1MW).
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