Hardy Pemhiwa, president and group CEO of Cassava Technologies.

With a $500 million war chest for growth, Africa Data Centres (ADC), owned by Cassava Technologies, has announced the expansion of its CPT1 facility in Cape Town.

According to the company, this expansion will see the data centre giant add three new state-of-the-art halls in new areas on campus, as well as extra 6MW of IT load, effectively doubling its present capacity.

The additional expansion was made possible thanks to a loan of up to $300 million from the United States International Development Finance Corporation to ADC.

The announcement today follows a recent ITWeb interview with Dr. Angus Hay, ADC's regional executive, who explained that the expansion was part of Cassava Technologies' $500 million ambitions to expand its footprint across the continent.

Today, Hardy Pemhiwa, president and group CEO of Cassava, said: “This expansion by Africa Data Centres is in response to the increasing demand for co-location capacity in South Africa. Not only is Cape Town the second largest economy in South Africa, but it is also the de facto software and technology hub in Southern Africa.”

The company said the data centre market in South Africa as a whole is experiencing enormous growth, as both national and international cloud and IT service providers seek to expand their footprints in the region..

In terms of scale, the expansion adds 1000 racks of white space, or space accessible for clients to lease, although the actual site is much larger. It is comprised of two additional colocation data halls and one hyperscale hall.

According to the firm, the new halls are built using ADC's cutting-edge modular design, which offers rapid scalability and a modern design that allows the facility to be populated as needed to meet the needs of the customer.

Pemhiwa said this would not have been possible without the support of the Ministry of ICT, Western Cape Provincial Government and the Western Cape Department of Economic Development. “I would like to acknowledge their ongoing support, as we expand our data centre facilities in South Africa.”

ADC stated that the new halls have the same "cutting-edge security standards" and focus on the factors that are most important to clients, such as scalability, flexibility, and energy efficiency, to provide world-class, affordable solutions to all of its clients in the area.

According to the business, this data centre is very versatile and built to meet an array of changing customer demands.

Furthermore, according to ADC, this data centre has hybrid cooling technology that can handle both air and liquid cooling.

The company explained further: “Despite its versatility, no compromises were made on efficiency. It is one of the most efficient and sustainable data centres ever built in South Africa. It is powered by renewable energy, boasts a Water Usage Effectiveness of 0 due to no water consumption for the IT infrastructure, and has an impressive Power Usage Effectiveness rating as well.”

It added that ADC’s CPT1 facility is at the “forefront of pioneering” the use of wheeled solar power in the market.

ADC noted that “this innovation” is enabled through a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement signed in March last year with Distributed Power Africa, part of the Cassava Technologies group.

According to ADC, it is the first company to successfully “implement this ground-breaking” technology in Africa, marking it the continent's first project of its kind.

“The introduction of wheeled solar power at the CPT1 facility offers significant benefits to our' customers, providing a truly sustainable data centre solution. As the demand for data continues to skyrocket across Africa, a continent where power supply is often intermittent, the need for reliable, cost-effective, and green power has never been more critical,” said Finhai Munzara, Interim CEO of ADC.

He asserted that by using renewable energy, the CPT1 plant not only assures steady power supply but also promotes sustainable operations, assisting customers in meeting their environmental goals.

“Our state-of-the-art facility reduces reliance on non-renewable energy sources, setting a new standard for sustainability in the data centre industry.”

Munzara further stated that Cape Town is a "excellent location" for colocation facilities due to its proximity to all submarine cable landing stations.

Furthermore, he stated that the facility houses the Cape Town Internet Exchange (CINX), which facilitates, streamlines, and simplifies multi-region peering.

This also allows for direct network connections, which improves data flow and reduces latency, providing ADC users with a faster, more responsive online experience.

Finally, Munzara pointed out that the expansion improves the capacity of the company's data centres in South Africa and is a key component of its investment ambitions to deliver numerous new data facilities across the continent.