Page 37 - EngineerIT December 2022

NEWS DIGEST

Teraco breaks ground on JB5 – A 30MW data

centre expansion to the Isando Campus

Teraco’s new development brings a highly advanced and sustainably designed
data centre to the Isando Campus

eraco: A Digital Realty Company, Artist’s rendition of JB5
Africa’s largest interconnection
Thub and vendor-neutral data
centre provider, announced that
construction has commenced on a new
hyperscale data centre facility with 30
megawatts (MW) of critical power load
at its Isando Campus in Ekurhuleni, east
of Johannesburg. The facility, known
as JB5, is scheduled for completion in
2024 and will incorporate the latest
environmentally sustainable cooling and
water management designs.
CEO of Teraco, Jan Hnizdo, said
that the company continues with solid
growth, as enterprise and hyperscale
requirements continue apace due to network service providers, peering at NAPAfrica, regional IXPs, content delivery networks
sustained demand for hybrid cloud and cloud provider on-ramps. Hnizdo says that this expansion aims to further support
deployments and the adoption of cloud sub-Saharan enterprises by advancing their digital transformation strategies and enabling
services in Africa. “South Africa is a global cloud providers to expand their footprints —spurring innovation.
springboard for cloud provision into JB5 has been designed to put sustainability first and minimise its environmental
Africa and, as a result, has become footprint. JB5 will incorporate the latest state-of-the-art cooling designs, a closed-loop
the technology and data centre hub chilled water system that incorporates 100% free air cooling. This design will bring about
for sub-Saharan Africa. Massive global industry-leading PUEs, thereby reducing the energy consumed and limiting water used in
investments into undersea cables, like the ongoing cooling process to zero.
Equiano and 2Africa, further strengthen JB5 is the latest expansion to Teraco’s growing data centre platform and takes critical
this position. This will enable global cloud power load capacity at Teraco facilities to 156MW, which includes the Isando Campus
providers to service not only the South facilities; JB1/JB3/JB5 (70MW), Bredell Campus JB2/JB4 (64MW), Cape Town Campus
African market but also the rest of the CT1/CT2 (21MW) and Durban (1MW).
sub-Saharan African region.” Organisations working to accelerate their digital transformation utilise Teraco to
“Teraco is committed to growing its dynamically scale their IT infrastructure, adopt hybrid multi-cloud architectures and
capacity footprint across its core hubs. interconnect with strategic business partners within the Platform Teraco ecosystem of
We ensure our clients have the flexibility global and local clients.
to scale and take advantage of the digital
transformation across sub-Saharan Key Facts
Africa. We continue to invest significantly • JB5 comprises 55,000sqm of building structure serviced by 120MVA of utility
in the region’s ICT infrastructure and power supply.
have built Africa’s largest data centre • Strategically located in the Isando Campus alongside JB1 and JB3, Africa’s most
platform. We take pride in enabling open highly interconnected facilities with over 14,000 interconnects.
access interconnection and providing • JB5 will be built in a single phase and includes 12x 1,000 m2 halls.
world-class data centre infrastructure for • JB5 is a significant addition to South and sub-Saharan Africa’s data centre footprint.
all our clients,” Hnizdo said. • The new data centre development is being built in line with global hyperscale
The JB5 facility is Teraco’s eighth requirements.
data centre development located in the • It will augment the existing portfolio of ISO9001, ISO27001, ISO50001, ISO14001,
heart of Ekurhuleni’s Aerotropolis. It is PCI-DSS and ISAE3402-certified data centre facilities.
here that Teraco’s data centres already • JB5 will feature environmentally conscious designs and monitoring technology to
provide access to a wide choice of reduce water use and improve energy efficiency.

EngineerIT | December 2022 | 37