As volumes of data in South Africa grow, so does the demand for the capacity to store and process it. “This is why Africa Data Centres has such ambitious expansion plans in the region. As Africa’s largest and leading network of interconnected, carrier- and cloud-neutral data centre facilities, we are continually working to provide the infrastructure to help companies achieve their digital goals.”

There are several regions experiencing high data centre demand in Africa, and data centre capacity has more than doubled in the past few years. South Africa is leading the charge and is now brimming with new projects.

Moreover, Durvasula says, “Hyper-scaler cloud providers have been eyeing the region for some time, with Amazon opening its first African cloud data centre in South Africa in April 2020. In addition, Google Cloud recently selected Africa Data Centres as the first location for Google Cloud Interconnect in Africa”.

Cape Town is the number two data centre market in South Africa and currently has a connectivity ecosystem made up of several colocation data centres and a wide range of cloud service providers and networks.

Research estimates that the market for data centres in Africa is expected to reach between US$3 billion and US$5 billion in the next four years, growing at a compound annual growth rate of between 12 and 15%, depending on the report.

South Africa remains is the largest data centre market on the continent, with a thriving data centre industry, and has been ranked number 25 globally by Cloudscene based on data centre density.

Over and above bringing digital services to Capetonians, the facility will create a wide range of job opportunities through the provision of digital services and hiring local contractors and workers for the builds, from entry to high-tech level.

The Cape Town build is currently in the initial design phase, with work set to start on site in the last quarter of 2022. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2023.

www.AfricaDataCentres.com