Afrigather US information middle firm, Equinix, is planning to speculate $160 million in constructing its first information middle in South Africa to speed up the agency’s growth into Africa. It expects to service giant enterprises reminiscent of banks, content material and media corporations, in addition to hyper-scalers working within the nation.
According to Bloomberg, the info middle can be inbuilt Johannesburg and is predicted to be accomplished and operational by mid-2024.
“South Africa was a giant goal for Equinix as it’s the most developed financial system in sub-Saharan Africa…we’re specializing in stepping into Africa, and we’re taking a look at one other 5 – 6 international locations to enter,” mentioned Equinix EMEA president, Eugene Bergen.
Simply final week, Equinix introduced the acquisition of west African information middle agency MainOne for $320 million. The corporate cited Africa’s younger inhabitants with growing entry to the web as a motive for its accelerated growth into the continent.
To deal with South Africa’s urgent power challenges, Equinix plans to “take numerous steps to make sure a secure provide, together with constructing its personal energy capability, putting in a number of back-up turbines and making offers with native grids.”
Cassava Applied sciences-backed Vantage Knowledge Facilities can also be including one other information middle to its arsenal after saying this week that it was launching a second information middle facility in Joburg.
The JNB2 campus is situated in Ekurhuleni, the larger Johannesburg Metropol’s commerce and trade hub, and roughly 17 kilometers from Vantage’s first JNB1 campus launched in July 2022.
Additionally it is located close to the OR Tambo Worldwide Airport and fewer than two kilometers from the NAPAfrica impartial Web eXchange in a area that serves because the cloud on-ramp for a lot of giant expertise corporations.
“South Africa continues to be a cornerstone for Vantage’s EMEA progress outdoors of continental Europe…Investing in a second campus is a testomony to our dedication to the area and our clients who’ve enterprise necessities to be on this high-demand market,” mentioned Antoine Boniface, the EMEA president of Vantage Knowledge Facilities.
Based on recent data, the Africa information centre market dimension is predicted to cross US$3 billion by 2025, rising at a compound annual progress fee of over 12% and pushed by the continent’s rising web utilization.
