Vendor-neutral data centre provider Teraco has completed the expansion project at its DB1 facility, which it says is the largest data centre in KwaZulu-Natal.
Today’s announcement comes after Teraco on Monday commenced the 30-megawatt (MW) expansion of its CT2 hyperscale data centre facility in Brackenfell, Cape Town.
The projects come after Teraco earlier this year secured a syndicated loan facility worth R11.8 billion to drive growth and service its debt.
The loan came after US-based Digital Realty – one of the largest global providers of cloud and carrier-neutral data centre, colocation and interconnection solutions – concluded the acquisition of Teraco in August last year.
This, as the race to build data centres in South Africa continues to hot up, with most organisations migrating their workloads into the cloud.
With the landing of the subsea internet cables on South African shores, data centre providers also see this as an opportunity.
According to a recent report by Console Connect Africa, an estimated amount of over R100 billion will be invested in carrier-neutral data centres in Africa over the next three to five years.
The report notes the inflow of investment in Africa has consolidated and internationalised the carrier-neutral data centre sector.
It points out that three of the big players that have come to the continent – Digital Realty, Equinix and Vantage – all have international networks of data centres across the globe.
In a statement, Teraco says as SA’s third-largest city with a population of over three million people, home to thriving digitally connected enterprises and a key South African manufacturing hub, Durban is experiencing demand for additional data centre capacity. It was therefore a logical destination for Teraco’s continued investment in data centre infrastructure on the African continent, it adds.
The company notes that situated on Durban’s north coast, Teraco DB1 is a strategic interconnection hub on the African subsea cable map, with direct access to the Seacom, EASSy, MÉTISS, and soon-to-be-deployed 2Africa cable systems that connect the east coast of Africa.
Teraco’s DB1 facility is connected to the Teraco campus in Isando, Johannesburg, through a host of carriers via diverse regional fibre routes, enabling organisations to increase the number of partners they connect with and expand their reach into new markets, it adds.
Teraco’s DB1 facility offers colocation and interconnection services and the ability to leverage Teraco’s digital hubs in Johannesburg directly.
According to the company, the newly-expanded facility supports the growing demand from enterprises and cloud service providers for data centre capacity.
“DB1 offers highly-resilient and secure colocation facilities in line with Teraco’s long-term vision of enabling digital transformation across Africa,” the company says.
The expansion has doubled DB1’s capacity to 2.2MW of critical power load, it says, adding the facility now comprises 5 800 square metres of building structure, accommodating over 700 racks.
It explains the DB1 facility provides enterprises with direct access to Platform Teraco, an ecosystem of over 250 network providers, global cloud on-ramps, subsea cable systems, access to over 100 managed service providers, and direct peering at NAPAfrica, Africa’s largest internet exchange point.
DB1 is the latest expansion for Teraco’s growing data centre platform. It takes critical power load capacity at Teraco facilities to 186MW, which includes the Isando Campus JB1/JB3/JB5 (70MW), Bredell Campus JB2/JB4 (64MW), Cape Town Campus CT1/CT2 (50MW), and Durban (2MW).
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