Vantage Data Centers, a leading global provider of hyperscale data centre campuses, has announced that it has begun construction of its first African campus in Johannesburg, South Africa, leveraging a US$1 billion investment from existing financial partners. The 80MW campus will be in Johannesburg’s Waterfall City, a thriving business and data centre ecosystem in the heart of the continent’s largest data centre market. This marks Vantage’s entry into its fifth continent. From its initial US roots, Vantage previously expanded to two Canadian markets in early 2019, to six European markets in 2020 and to five markets in Asia Pacific in 2021.
“Vantage has seen strong demand from our customers for high quality, hyperscale data centre facilities across the globe and we are excited to meet this demand by expanding to Africa’s largest market,” said Sureel Choksi, President and CEO, Vantage Data Centers. “With our global expansion over the last two and half years, we have become one of the fastest growing hyperscale data centre providers in the world.”
The carrier-neutral Johannesburg campus will consist of three facilities across 30 acres (12 hectares) with 650,000 square feet (60,000 square meters) of data centre space once fully developed. The first phase of the campus, slated for completion in the summer of 2022, will include a 16MW building.
“Johannesburg is the data centre hub for sub-Saharan Africa due to its strategic location, IT ecosystem, fibre connectivity to the rest of Africa and the availability of renewable energy,” said Antoine Boniface, President, Vantage EMEA. “We look forward to not only opening the doors of our first African facility to our customers, but also to becoming part of the local community. Our first campus has a planned investment of more than US$1 billion and it will create hundreds of jobs to positively impact the local economy.”
Sustainable design
The design is based on Vantage’s standardised campus blueprint, which emphasises sustainable construction practices such as offering renewable energy options, limiting carbon footprints and maintaining energy efficient operations with an industry-leading power usage effectiveness (PUE).
Sustainable building features include permeable landscaping and natural on-site drainage to protect precious resources. Vantage will invest in recycling, motion-sensor LED lighting and other elements for incremental energy and water savings throughout the campus, in addition to electric vehicle charging stations.
Power and cooling
Powered by ESKOM, the campus will benefit from a dedicated on-site, high-voltage substation. It will be cooled using a highly efficient, closed-loop chilled water system generated through air-cooled chillers. An integrated economizer capability will allow reduced compressor energy based on outside ambient temperature so that when the weather is favourable, cooling becomes more sustainable and less resource intensive.
Security and amenities
The company’s hallmark security measures include an on-site security operations centre with 24x7x365 patrols, perimeter security, CCTV on all access points and multi-level authentication and access controls for employees, customers and visitors.
Vantage also designs comfortable employee and customer areas to help personnel do their best work. Amenities will include dedicated offices and workspaces, break areas, conference rooms, meeting spaces and secure storage areas.
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