Vendor-neutral data centre provider Teraco today announced the completion of its JB4 Bredell Campus data centre expansion, in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.
In a statement, the Digital Realty-owned company says the 30MW addition establishes JB4 as the largest standalone data centre built in Africa, servicing 50MW of critical IT power load.
The completion comes as the South African data centre market experiences substantial growth, driven by increased cloud adoption, digital transformation, and the rise of technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things.
According to Mordor Intelligence, this growth is attracting significant investment, with projections indicating a market value of $3.4 billion (R60 billion) by 2030.
Data centre players in the country include Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Vantage, Equinix, African Data Centres, Open Access Data Centres and NTT Data.
Teraco notes this new phase at JB4 comprises six data halls, incorporates new design enhancements and each hall supports 5MW of allocated critical IT power load.
It explains that the new data halls are fully liquid-to-liquid cooling enabled, allowing clients to deploy high-density, air-cooled cloud deployments and direct-to-chip cooling for denser AI workloads.
According to the company, JB4 has been designed with sustainability at its core, incorporating a closed-loop chilled water system that provides free air cooling, coupled with AI-enabled technology to configure data hall cooling in real-time, based on IT load and load dispersion.
It points out that the JB4 expansion contributes to the South African and Sub-Saharan African data centre footprint.
This follows the recent completion of Teraco’s new hyperscale JB5 Isando facility, which adds another 30MW of critical IT power load to Teraco’s Isando Campus in Ekurhuleni.
Teraco CEO Jan Hnizdo says the company is well-positioned to continue its growth, due to sustained demand from enterprises and hyperscale clients for hybrid cloud and cloud deployments.
“South Africa has become the technology and data centre hub for Sub-Saharan Africa, acting as a springboard for cloud, AI and content provision into Africa. Massive global investments in undersea cables, such as 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,” says Hnizdo.
“We continue to make significant investments in ICT infrastructure and have established Africa’s largest data centre platform. We are proud to offer open-access interconnection and deliver world-class data centre solutions to all our clients.”
The JB4 facility is located in the heart of Ekurhuleni’s Aerotropolis. It is here that Teraco’s data centres already provide access to a network service providers, regional IXPs, content delivery networks, cloud service provider on-ramps, and peering at the eighth largest internet exchange in the world, NAPAfrica.
Teraco’s data centre platform now stands at 189MW of critical power load, which includes the Isando Campus (JB1/JB3/JB5: 70MW), Bredell Campus (JB2/JB4: 64MW), Cape Town Campus (CT1/CT2: 53MW) and Durban (DB1: 2MW), says the company.
Key facts about JB4
- JB4 is the largest standalone data centre built in Africa, with 80 000m2 of building structure, serviced by 80MW of utility power supply, providing 50MW of critical IT power load.
- JB4 features environmentally-conscious designs, including a zero-water closed loop cooling system and monitoring technology to improve energy-efficiency.
- The total facility comprises 14 data halls, making up 17 000m2.
- The first data centre in Africa to provide 5MW of critical IT load within a single data hall.
- Located in the Bredell Campus, Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, alongside the R21 business corridor.
- The facility has multiple fibre paths to the Teraco Isando Campus connectivity hub (JB1/JB3/JB5) located 20km away.
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