Africa Data Centre Expands Its Cape Town Facility

Cape Town Data Centre Expansion: Pan-African data centre provider Africa Data Centres (ADC) has commenced the expansion of its CPT1 facility in Cape Town, South Africa.

Before the expansion, the facility offered 5.5MW of IT capacity across 2,700 sqm (29,000 sq ft) of IT space.

According to a statement on Friday, the company is expanding the facility in response to a growing appetite for computing capacity in the local market.

Cape Town Data Centre Expansion

Hardy Pemhiwa, CEO of Africa Data Centres parent company Cassava Technologies, expressed his opinion in the statement.

He 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 is seeing tremendous growth in the data centre market in South Africa generally, as both national and international cloud and IT service providers seek to expand their footprints in the region.

Unique Features Installed In Cape Town Data Centre Expansion

In terms of size, the expansion adds 1000 racks of white space or the space available for customers to lease, although the physical site is significantly larger than that.

It is made up of two more colocation data halls and one hyperscale hall.

The new halls are built in the advanced modular design pioneered by Africa Data Centres. It enables rapid scalability and a modern design.

Moreover, the unique design allows the facility to be populated as and when required to suit the needs of the customer.

The upgraded facility now has hybrid cooling and is powered by renewable energy. 

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The company signed a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with Distributed Power Africa in March 2023 for its South Africa operations.

Finhai Munzara, interim CEO of Africa Data Centres, said, “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.”

He went on to add that Cape Town is an excellent location for colocation facilities as it is a stone’s throw away from all the submarine cable landing stations. 

Expansion To Facilitate Data Flow Efficiency

Note that the Cape Town facility houses the Cape Town Internet Exchange (CINX), which makes multi-region peering more accessible, efficient, and easy to manage. 

This also facilitates direct connections between networks, enabling data to flow more efficiently and reducing latency, giving our users a faster, more responsive online experience.

Finally, Munzara highlighted the huge advantage of the expansion. He said the expansion increases the capacity of the  company’s data centres in South Africa.

Moreover, this investment will deliver additional data facilities across Africa.

Interesting times ahead.