An artist's impression of the Vantage data centre to be built at Waterfall City
Data centre multinational Vantage Data Centers plans to invest more than R15‐billion to build its first‐ever African campus, which will be based in the mixed-use precinct Waterfall City.
The 80 MW campus will help foster economic growth, stimulate job creation and use an energy‐efficient design, the company said on October 13.
Vantage’s carrier‐neutral Johannesburg campus will include 60 000 m2 of data space across three facilities (totalling 12 ha) once fully developed.
“Johannesburg is the data centre hub for sub‐Saharan Africa owing to its strategic location, information technology ecosystem, fibre connectivity to the rest of Africa and the availability of renewable energy. We look forward to opening the doors of our first African facility to our customers and becoming part of the local community,” says Vantage Europe, Middle East and Africa president Antoine Boniface.
The first phase of the campus, which is slated for completion by the third quarter of 2022, will include a 16 MW building. The design will follow Vantage’s standardised campus blueprint, which emphasises sustainable construction practices with power use effectiveness.
Incremental energy solutions will be prominent, including electric vehicle charging stations. The campus will have an on‐site, high‐voltage substation.
Indirectly, the potential impact is significant. Having an African campus could create a cost‐effective digital infrastructure solution for myriad financial technology companies and local businesses, the company said.
“Vantage is excited about its first African venture. Vantage has seen strong demand from 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.
"With our global expansion across five continents in just two-and-a-half years, we have become one of the fastest‐growing hyperscale data centre providers in the world,” said Vantage president and CEO Sureel Choksi.
Meanwhile, JSE-listed real estate investment trust and Waterfall City and Waterfall Logistics Hub developer Attacq is partnering with Vantage to develop a campus that is tailored to meet the requirements of Vantage’s global campus blueprint.
“As the developers of Waterfall City, Attacq is working with Vantage to build a campus that is tailored to meet the organisation’s global requirements, while leveraging Waterfall’s unique capacity to scale its tenant footprints according to evolving company and market demand,” Attacq CEO Jackie van Niekerk said.
“With a scalable, fit‐for‐future logistics hub and a world‐class corporate campus, Waterfall City has an established record of attracting leading international businesses such as BMW, PwC, Massbuild, Cotton On and Cummins to the precinct,” she noted.