Data center operator Teraco has announced the completion of the first phase of JB4, a giant new data center near Johannesburg. Such data centres are known as hyperscale facilities, and Teraco, a subsidiary of Digital Realty, is Africa’s largest vendor-neutral provider of such facilities, as both data center and interconnection platform provider. JB4 expands Teraco’s Bredell Campus in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg.
The new facility supports the growing demand by enterprises and cloud providers for data centre capacity. JB4 promises highly resilient and secure colocation facilities in line with Teraco’s long-term vision of enabling digital transformation across Africa.
“As one of Africa’s economic powerhouses, Gauteng, the greater Johannesburg Metropol, is a logical destination for Teraco’s continued investment in data centre infrastructure on the continent,” the company said in a statement. “Home to digitally connected enterprises, including telecommunications, financial services, e-commerce, logistics, and retail, the Johannesburg Metropol benefits from its enviable location in the heart of southern Africa, which has led to it becoming the hub for connectivity and peering.
“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 has secured adjacent land and power for Phase 2 expansion, bringing the total critical power load in the facility to 50MW at the end state.
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).
Says 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.
Hnizdo says that 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.”
Organisations working to accelerate their digital transformation utilise Teraco to scale up their IT infrastructure dynamically, adopt hybrid multi-cloud architectures, and interconnect with strategic business partners within the Platform Teraco ecosystem of global and local clients.
Hnizdo says 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,” he says. “This will enable global cloud clients to service the South African market and the rest of the sub-Saharan African region.”
Key Facts at JB4, as supplied by Teraco:
- JB4 is one of the largest single-site data centres on the African continent; at the end-state, it will comprise 60 000sqm of building structure serviced by 80MW of utility power supply servicing 50MW of critical power load.
- Located in Ekurhuleni, East of Johannesburg, alongside the R21 business corridor.
- The facility has multiple fibre paths to the Teraco Isando Campus connectivity hub (JB1/JB3), some 20 kilometres away.
- Phase I includes 8x 1000sqm halls with 19MW of critical power load.
- JB4 is a significant addition to South and sub-Saharan Africa’s data centre footprint.
- JB4 is built in line with global hyperscale requirements and international compliance standards and will augment the existing portfolio of ISO9001, ISO27001, ISO50001, ISO140001, PCI-DSS and ISAE3402-certified data center facilities.
