INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Data Centres
Teraco Data raises $90m for
African data centre rollout
Funding will be used to further invest in the existing Isando
campus and the rest will be spent on its upcoming data
centre in Bredell.
T
“Bredell will be the
largest commercial
data centre in Africa
and Teraco the
largest commercial
data centre operator
in Africa.”
eraco, Africa’s largest carrier and
cloud-neutral colocation data
centre, has announced it has
raised a medium-term funding facility
from Absa amounting to R1.2 billion.
Teraco’s Chief Financial Officer,
Jan Hnizdo, says this is another
significant milestone for Teraco and
that the funding is earmarked for
further investments into data centre
infrastructure: “We will use the funding
to further invest in the Teraco Campus
in Isando. The site presently has
20MWs of capacity, which needs to
all be brought online. We have also
purchased land adjacent to the existing
site, allowing for further expansion.
In addition, a component of the
funding has also been earmarked for
the construction of Teraco’s new data
centre in Bredell.”
Hnizdo says the Bredell site has 24MW
of power and more than 6,000m 2 of
technical deployment space, and will
eclipse the existing Teraco Campus from
a power availability perspective: “Bredell
will be the largest commercial data
centre in Africa and Teraco the largest
commercial data centre operator
in Africa.”
Teraco builds and operates colocation
data centre facilities that enable
clients to deploy telecommunications
equipment and other key IT infrastructure
in a scalable way. Teraco further provides
clients with a secure environment
where they are able to easily connect
to submarine cable systems, African
terrestrial networks, major African IP
backbones and key content.
Teraco’s Campus in Isando has been
www.intelligentcio.com
Johannesburg which, combined, at
current facilities’ end-state will comprise
50MW of power and over 18,000m 2 of
data centre space.
established as the connectivity gateway
into South and sub-Saharan Africa.
Its client community continues to
expand significantly, with over 350
key clients deriving significant value
from colocating within the connectivity
gateway. Teraco is also home to
NAPAfrica, Africa’s largest neutral layer-
two Internet exchange point (IXP), with
over 240 unique connected networks
and 160Gbps peering traffic across sub-
Saharan Africa.
“Teraco continues to experience high
demand for its neutral data centre
facilities, underpinned by strong growth
in Internet penetration into Africa
and increased cloud adoption by the
enterprise sector,” says Lex van Wyk,
CEO of Teraco.
The company has expanded its
footprint over the last nine years to
include four data centre facilities
located in Cape Town, Durban and
Hnizdo says the Absa facility will enable
the plant and data centre fit-out of the
newly completed facility located on
the Isando Campus to be completed.
It will also partly fund the Bredell
facility, where construction commenced
in November 2016 and is due for
completion towards the end of 2017.
“Our partnership with Teraco over the
years has played a significant role in
their growth and expansion. We believe
that Teraco has an important role to
play in Africa’s ICT sector and this
facility will further entrench Teraco as
the market leader in vendor-neutral
data centres in sub-Saharan Africa,” says
Jason Abt, Principal at Absa.
“Absa is a trusted business partner and
a significant part of Teraco’s success.
Absa understands our unique business
model and the associated infrastructure
funding requirements and timelines,”
says Hnizdo.
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