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Digital demand drives Africa Data Centres to muscle up Samrand

By , Portals editor
Africa , South Africa , 30 Aug 2022
Tesh Durvasula, CEO at Africa Data Centres.
Tesh Durvasula, CEO at Africa Data Centres.

Cassava Technologies’ Africa Data Centres has expanded its South Africa-based Samrand Facility (Centurion, Gauteng) from 10MW to 40MW in a continuation of its phased infrastructure development strategy.

Tesh Durvasula, CEO of Africa Data Centres, said, “The expansion will happen in multiple phases. The construction of the first phase is starting today and will deliver 20MW across eight data halls by 2023. The next phase will include an additional 10MW of IT load by the end of 2025. The infrastructure will be fully modular with all critical plant rooms being prefabricated off-site.”

The company has flagged its South African operation as key to its overall expansion strategy.

In June this year it announced the construction of a second datacentre in Cape Town to cover 15,000 square meters in eight data halls.

According to Durvasula there is a clear pipeline of demand for colocation space that cannot be served from the existing Diep River datacentre.

Africa Data Centres added that the latest development of its Johannesburg facilities is an integral part of the expansion, “as South Africa is one of the most important datacentre markets in Africa and a gateway for smaller neighbouring markets.”

Said Durvasula, “South Africa is a strategic location, being at the southern-most point of Africa and is undoubtedly the de facto datacentre and technology hub for the sub-Saharan Africa region. This, in conjunction with the increasing fibre connectivity brought by both undersea and terrestrial fibre networks, makes it at the vanguard of data centre expansion on the continent”.

Africa Data Centres said it has witnessed unprecedented demand for digital services, apps, broadband and cloud technologies in Africa.

Its latest capacity-related announcement follows the recent launch of a new 10MW datacentre at the company’s campus in Midrand, and the expansion of the organisation’s operations in Accra, Ghana.

According to Durvasula, “This is a step forward in the organisation’s massive expansion plans announced in September, the most ambitious data centre expansion plans Africa has ever seen.”

This will see the construction of large hyper-scale datacentres across Africa, including the top five datacentre markets in North Africa, namely Morocco, Tunisia, Kenya, South Africa and Egypt.

“Our unmatched investment of US$500m will enable Africa Data Centres to build numerous interconnected, cloud- and carrier-neutral data centres across the continent. It will more than double our already significant footprint on the continent and aims to help Africa achieve its digital transformation goals,” he added.

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