DEVELOP & INVEST
operation of cloud-based enterprise solutions . Whether it ’ s your Netflix series or your Zoom meeting , it ’ ll stream faster and in better quality if the data is housed in-country and doesn ’ t have to travel across the world to reach your screen .
‘ Likewise ,’ ADCA noted in its report , ‘ the region would need to make available 1.5 to 3.5 million square metres of well-located and adequately provisioned land to facilitate the build-out of the necessary data centre infrastructure .’
That ’ s why , according to consultancy Turner & Townsend , Africa ’ s data centre market is set to grow at a compound annual rate of more than 12 % to reach $ 3 billion in 2025 .
An African opportunity
The growth forecasts are compelling . In November 2020 ITWeb and CommScope ran a small online survey around South African organisations ’ data centres . The survey , which admittedly had a small sample size of just 110 responses ( though 59 % of them were at executive or middle management level ), found that 64 % of respondents expected their data centre investment to increase over the coming 12 months .
Riaan Graham , Enterprise Director for CommScope Sub-Saharan Africa , said that that ’ s to be expected , with a number of data centres under construction in South Africa . ‘ There ’ s always rapid uptake of new data centres that offer proper storage , security and value to the market ,’ he said .
For South African developers , the news was even more inviting : although the country already accounts for about 60 % of the continent ’ s available multi-tenant data centre power supply , ADCA ’ s analysts expect South Africa to add 10 times more colocation power capacity over the next two years than all other African markets combined .
The numbers look good
Still , if you think the data centre property market is completely tapped out , you ’ re not paying close enough attention to the numbers . More than 30 facilities have been built and brought online in Africa since 2016 , doubling the region ’ s capacity . But as that 60 % figure suggests , the distribution of that capacity is horribly lopsided . Johannesburg , Cape Town , Durban , Bloemfontein all have at least one data centre each … but about two-thirds of the 80 African cities that have a population of more than 1 million do not .
There ’ s opportunity here – and money to be made .
24 D E V E L O P M E N T
The supply is hastily trying to catch up to a massive demand for data . According to a report by the African Data Centres Association ( ADCA ) and Xalam Analytics , our continent will have to add at least 120MW of multi-tenant data centre capacity over the coming decade just to keep up with the current demand .
The same report found that , at midpoint , the region will have to add nearly 1,000MW of capacity and an astonishing 700 data centres , just to get the broader region on par with the current South African levels .
In February 2021 , Absa facilitated R2.5 billion in funding for vendorneutral data centre provider Teraco to begin construction on the JB4 , an enormous new hyperscale data centre in the East Rand ’ s digital hub , Ekurhuleni . In August construction was completed on JB3 , and JB4 is scheduled for completion in Q1 2022 . JB4 will be the biggest single-site data centre in Africa , comprising 50,000 square metres of building structure , and serviced by 80MW of utility power supply .
‘ South Africa is strategically located at the tip of the African continent , and , as a result , is positioned as a technology and data centre hub for sub-Saharan Africa ,’ Teraco CEO Jan Hnizdo said . ‘ This is further underpinned by growing undersea and terrestrial fibre connectivity to the rest of Africa . The continued increase of cloud adoption in Africa is also being enabled by investments in critical infrastructure , including hyperscale data centre facilities such as JB4 . This will enable global cloud clients to service not only the South African market , but reach the rest of the sub-Saharan African region as well .’
JB4 is a landmark , in every sense of the word . It ’ s enormous and it ’ s important , but there ’ s a growing sense among investors , tech commentators and property developers that it ’ s really just the beginning of something even bigger .
Mark van Dijk