Investment in Data centers have seen a general increase this year, as its demand continues to rise. The need for investing in this unique asset class in Africa is even more important because of the gaps between supply and demand, and the opportunities it presents. Previously, we’ve noted that one of the reasons influencing this growth is the current and future demand to be driven by the tech sector growth.

With this backdrop, two prominent data center operators; Equinix and Vantage Data Centers announced their expansions into the South African Market on December 13th, 2022. 

Equinix Expansion marks its entry into South Africa after its Major Acquisition

Equinix announced its new plans to enter the South African market with a $160 million investment. This amount will go into building their first Johannesburg data center’ JN1 expected to be operational mid-2024. 

This data center is expected to have the following facilities:

• 4 MW capacity
• 690+ cabinets
• 20,000 gross colocation space

This build is planned as the first phase of a larger build which is expected to have 20.0 MW premium retail campus, 3,450+ cabinets, and 100,000 gross square feet of colocation space.

According to Eugene Bergen, President EMEA Equinix,  

“This investment will give both South African businesses the opportunity to expand internationally and global businesses to expand into South Africa. Both will be able to accelerate their growth by rapidly scaling their infrastructure, easily adopting hybrid multi cloud architectures and interconnecting with business partners through the Platform Equinix ecosystem of more than 10,000 customers.”

Equinix is a global digital infrastructure company, providing interconnections for organizations around the world by building data centers. 

Recall that in December 2021, Equinix acquired Main One for $320 million to make its debut in the African market. MainOne, which was a major West African data center operator, already had presence in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cote’d’voire. This new investment therefore, marks its debut in the South African market and we expect to see more of it follow. 

Vantage Data Centers strengthens its base in Johannesburg with new addition

Vantage Data Centers also announced its plans to build its second data center campus in Johannesburg; JNB2. The data center will be located at Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg, which is 17 km away from the JNB1 Midrand Campus. The campus is expected to be completed in mid-2024 and will have the following facilities: 

• 20 MW capacity 
• 355,000 square foot space
• 24x7x365 patrols, perimeter security, and CCTV on all access points
• dedicated offices and workspaces, break areas, conference rooms, meeting spaces and secure storage areas.
• closed-loop chilled water system
• Close proximity to the R Tambo International Airport and the NAPAfrica neutral Internet eXchange 

According to Antoine Boniface, president, Vantage Data Centers, EMEA, 

“Investing in a second campus is a testament to our commitment to the region and our customers who have business requirements to be in this high-demand market.”

Vantage Data Centers is a global data center provider with presence in North America, EMEA, and Asia Pacific. Recall that Vantage Data Centers opened its first data center in Africa, JNB1 in July, 2022. The opening of the 16 MW facility marked its debut in the African market and the expansion shows Vantage’s efforts to strengthen its base in the Continent. 

More Expansions, New Builds, and Investments is set to occur come 2023

The announcement of these two expansions on the same day shows the traction that the data center market is gaining in Africa despite the global economic strains. 

However, these are not the only operators in the African market. Africa Data Centers (ADC), another leading data center operator recently made its announcement to expand into East African Country, Rwanda as well as expand its operations in Nairobi. 

This recent trend of expansions in the data center market confirms the opportunity for growth in the space. With the market  still in its nascent stages, it requires more investments and builds in order to fully support the whole African Continent. 

We therefore expect to see more expansions, investments, and new builds in the data centers space in Africa come 2023. 

We love your feedback! What do you think about Equinix and Vantage Data Centers expansions into the South African market? Let us know by sending an email to [email protected].

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