SOUTH AFRICA – Africa Data Centres, part of the Cassava Technologies Group, a pan-African technology group, has announced the building a second data centre in Cape Town, South Africa.

In a statement, the company says the new 20MW facility will cover 15 000 square metres in eight data halls and is situated on the northern periphery of Cape Town city centre.

According to Tesh Durvasula, chief executive officer of Africa Data Centres, there is a clear pipeline of demand for colocation space that cannot be served from the existing Diep River data centre.

“The new Cape Town facility is a critical part of Africa Data Centres expansion drive in the area,” he said.

The company says the site is located in a secure business park that is well served by two major national roads, the N7 and M12, and is in close proximity to Cape Town’s city centre, the V&A Waterfront harbour, Cape Town International Airport, and is within easy reach of Africa Data Centres’ existing Africa Data Centres’ facility in Diep River.

As volumes of data in South Africa grow, so does the demand for the capacity to store and process it, says Africa Data Centres.

“This is why Africa Data Centres has such ambitious expansion plans in the region. As Africa’s largest and leading network of interconnected, carrier- and cloud-neutral data centre facilities, we are continually working to provide the infrastructure to help companies achieve their digital goals,” said Durvasula.

The firm notes that there are several regions experiencing high data centre demand in Africa, and data centre capacity has more than doubled in the past few years. South Africa is leading the charge and is now brimming with new projects, it adds.

“Hyper-scaler cloud providers have been eyeing the region for some time, with Amazon opening its first African cloud data centre in South Africa in April 2020. In addition, Google Cloud recently selected Africa Data Centres as the first location for Google Cloud Interconnect in Africa,” Durvasula added.

Cape Town is the number two data centre market in South Africa and currently has a connectivity ecosystem made up of several colocation data centres and a wide range of cloud service providers and networks, says Africa Data Centres.

According to the company, the Cape Town build is currently in the initial design phase, with work set to start on site in the last quarter of 2022. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2023.

This expansion to South Africa comes a week after the company announced that it is building a 30MW data centre facility in Accra, Ghana. The facility will play a significant role in leading the charge for hyper-scale customers to deploy digitisation solutions to West Africa.

Open Access Data Centres launches facility in South Africa

Open Access Data Centres (OADC) has launched its first data center in South Africa. The WIOCC subsidiary announced the launch of OADC Edge, its first facility. Located in Durban, the facility offers up to 5MW and 2,200 sqm (23,700 sqm) of white space. The facility will also house the cable landing for the Amanzimtoti branch of the 2Africa submarine cable.

The company’s second core data center is due to open in Nigeria later this year. Sitting on a four-hectare site in Lekki, Lagos, the US$100 million, Tier III quality facility will have up to 20MW of capacity and 7,200 sqm (77,500 sq ft) of white space. The Equiano sub-sea cable will land directly in this data center. The company said the site is scalable up to 40MW.

The company previously said a third facility in Mogadishu, Somalia, is due to come online ‘before the end of 2022′ but hasn’t yet detailed specifications.

OADC has previously said it plans facilities in up to 20 countries across Africa, including; Accra, Ghana; Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; Cape Town & Johannesburg, South Africa; Kinshasa, DRC; Lagos, Nigeria; and Mombasa & Nairobi, Kenya.

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