Page 9 - EngineerIt February 2021

ICT – DATA CENTRE

Africa’s largest data centre

rising in Gauteng

The 70 MW data centre under construction
by Teraco in Bredell (Ekurhuleni) will be
the largest on the African continent.

eraco Data Environments, Africa’s largest interconnection
hub and vendor-neutral data centre provider, recently
Tsigned a R2,5 billion loan financing transaction. eliminating the need for heating elements. Keeping diesel
Teraco will use the funds raised together with internally generators at the right temperature is important to ensure an
generated cash to finance the build. The new transaction immediate start-up when the mains power fails.
cements Teraco’s commitment to continuing investment in the Gys Geyser, head of Teraco infrastructure development says
region’s digital infrastructure and expanding Africa’s largest data that the data centre is being constructed in two phases, phase 1
2
centre platform. is the administration building, services and 8000 m of white
2
Teraco’s chief financial officer, Samuel Erwin, said that the space comprising eight 1000 m halls. The expected completion
shareholders and lenders of Teraco have a long-term vision for date for phase one is at the end of this year. Phase 2, which also
Africa’s digital transformation and support its continued comprises eight 1000 m halls will be completed the following
2
investment in data centre infrastructure to serve the sub- year. While the project is planned in two phases, all the basic
Saharan African market. He said that this funding round, and groundwork will be completed during phase1.
continued investments in data centre construction, align with Teraco, in cooperation with the Ekurhuleni electricity
Teraco’s support of the South African government’s investment department, is building a new substation with transformers,
drive and Teraco’s 2020 commitment to invest billions of Rands dedicated to the data centre. The electricity supply is backed up
into South Africa’s digital infrastructure. by diesel generators. An underground tank capable of storing
The funding transaction, led by Absa, includes several large one million litres of diesel will ensure that the data centre has
institutions that have joined the lending group, with a view to power, should an extended outage occur.
creating long term partnerships that will support Teraco’s future The roof space will be optimised to accommodate cooling
expansion plans. “Absa has continued along the growth path with infrastructure and solar panels. These panels will be sufficient to
Teraco. Their understanding of our business model and funding power the administration block and external building requirements.
requirements and ability to offer tailored funding solutions to suit
our needs has contributed to Teraco’s success” says Erwin. Significant investment digital readiness
The Bredell data centre, to be known as JB4, (Teraco has At a time when enterprises are focussing on cloud adoption
three other data centres in Ekurhuleni) is being built within the strategies, Teraco is making significant investments in providing
Eastport Logistics Park and will be first data centre in Gauteng access to digital infrastructure that is both resilient and highly
with permanent access to ambient air cooling. The site is ideally flexible. This offers enterprises the ability to scale as network
situated close the OR Tambo International airport, with easy strategies evolve in a world where fast and secure
access from the R21 freeway. interconnection with strategic business partners is a source of
“Our close proximity to the airport has allowed us to study competitive advantage.
detailed weather data from the airport weather station”, Brendan Organisations working to accelerate their digital
Dysel, head of Teraco infrastructure management said. “We transformation utilise Teraco to scale their IT infrastructure,
evaluated data recorded over the past seven years, giving us a adopt hybrid and multi-cloud architectures and interconnect with
good picture regarding temperature and humidity which are strategic business partners within the Platform Teraco
important factors when designing an ambient air cooling system. A ecosystem of over 600 global and local clients.
closed circuit water cooling system will supplement the ambient air Platform Teraco provides enterprises with a direct private
cooling when conditions outside cannot support enough cooling. connection to all leading cloud providers in the most latency
To be environmentally friendly is especially important to efficient, secure and resilient manner possible. Enterprises can
Teraco. While taking in cool air, the hot air is not simply deploy their private, public and hybrid cloud strategies on Platform
exhausted into the atmosphere but channelled to heat water and Teraco, which allows for complete freedom of choice from a cloud
the administration building. The hot air will also be channelled to provider perspective, as well as significantly reducing the time and
keep the diesel generators at the correct operating temperature, cost for enterprises to access these cloud platforms. n

EngineerIT | February 2021 | 7