International clients committed to sustainable energy usage are increasingly set to drive South African data centres to switch to green power usage.

This is according to Brendan Dysel, of Teraco Data Environments, who was addressing an audience at the Southern Africa Network Operators Group (SAFNOG) in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

Dysel was outlining challenges facing African data centres during his talk.

Dysel said key obstacles facing the industry include a lack of utility power stability in countries such as South Africa, rising power density requirements, African environmental conditions such as humidity, and client support. Other challenges include the security of data centre facilities, and uninterrupted power supply issues.

But he said one particular industry challenge facing the South African data centre space is adapting to the needs of international clients who are committed to green energy use: a factor that is expected to drive up data centre costs.

“It is going to become the norm, especially with the amount of international clients coming through SA,” said Dysel.

Dysel further said that another industry challenge facing the local data centre space is the likes of; for instance, conforming to ISO 9001 quality certification as well as the Payment Card Industry Data Security standard (PCI DSS): requirements that international clients demand.

Teraco Data Environments, which describes itself as Africa’s first vendor neutral data centre organisation, has facilities in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban in South Africa.

According to slides shown by Dysel at the SAFNOG event, Teraco’s number of clients have jumped from 3 in 2009 to 155 in 2013. Meanwhile, the Teraco’s investment in its business has also increased from $8 million in 2009 to $30 million in 2013.

Another figure that Dysel disclosed is Teraco’s total data centre facility floor-space, which has increased from 500 square metres in 2009 to 6,200 square metres in 2013.