Construction on Africa's largest data centre commences in Gauteng

Source: Pexels

Hyperscale data centres are large facilities that allow large tech companies, cloud providers and enterprises to increase their computing capability rapidly. This will be the company’s first one in South Africa and on the African continent. The sprawling carrier‐neutral Johannesburg campus will consist of three facilities across 12 hectares, with 60,000 square meters of data centre space once fully developed, making it the largest on the continent.

“Johannesburg is the data centre hub for Sub‐Saharan Africa due to its strategic location, IT ecosystem, fibre connectivity to the rest of Africa and the availability of renewable energy. We look forward to not only opening the doors of our first African facility to our customers but also to becoming part of the local community,” said Antoine Boniface, president, Vantage EMEA.

Attacq Limited, JSE listed Reit and developer of Waterfall City and Waterfall Logistics Hub, is partnering with Vantage to develop a campus that is tailored to meet the requirements of Vantage’s global campus blueprint.

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The campus will include permeable landscaping and natural on‐site drainage to protect precious resources. Vantage will invest in recycling, motion‐sensor LED lighting and other elements for incremental energy and water savings throughout the campus, in addition to electric vehicle charging stations.

To help meet its energy needs, the campus will also feature a dedicated on‐site, high‐voltage substation. The campus will be cooled using a highly efficient, closed‐loop chilled water system. An integrated economiser capability will allow reduced compressor energy based on the outside ambient temperature so that when the weather is favourable, cooling becomes more sustainable and less resource-intensive.

This project will increase Vantage’s global footprint to five continents. From its initial US roots, Vantage first moved into two Canadian markets in early 2019 before expanding to six European markets in 2020 and five in the Asia Pacific in 2021.