STARTS CONSTRUCTION OF 80MW JOHANNESBURG CAMPUS

Hyperscale campus provider Vantage Data Centers, has just announced the commencement of construction for its first African data center campus which is located in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Through a US$1 billion investment from its existing financial partners, Vantage expects the South Africa campus to deliver 80MW of IT power capacity upon full build, which will also mark the company’s entry into its fifth continent.

“Vantage has seen strong demand from our customers for high quality, hyperscale data center facilities across the globe, and we are excited to meet this demand by expanding to Africa’s largest market. With our global expansion over the last two and half years, we have become one of the fastest growing hyperscale data center providers in the world,” said Sureel Choksi, president and CEO of Vantage Data Centers.

With plans to deliver a 16MW building upon completion of the first phase, the campus is designed to be a carrier-neutral facility which will consist of three buildings across 30 acres (12 hectares) with 650,000 square feet (60,000 square meters) of data center space once fully developed.

“Johannesburg is the data center hub for sub-Saharan Africa due to its strategic location, IT ecosystem, fiber 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. Our first campus has a planned investment of more than US$1 billion, and it will create hundreds of jobs to positively impact the local economy,” said Antoine Boniface, president of Vantage EMEA.

As announced, the first phase of the campus is expected to be ready in the summer of 2022. Powered by ESKOM, the campus will benefit from a dedicated on-site power substation as well as offer renewable energy options to customers. Vantage also stated that it 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.

Last month, Vantage Data Centers expanded its portfolio into the Asia Pacific market through two acquisitions – Agile Data Centers and the data center portfolio of PCCW Ltd. (PCCW DC), both having a total capacity of 268MW.