Featuring three data centres totalling 60,000 square meters, the 80MW campus will be located in Johannesburg’s Waterfall City. Vantage raised $1 billion from its existing financial partners for the expansion, which marks the firm's fifth continent.
“Johannesburg is the data centre hub for sub-Saharan Africa due to its strategic location, IT ecosystem, fibre connectivity to the rest of Africa and the availability of renewable energy,” said Antoine Boniface, president, Vantage EMEA.
“We look forward to not only opening the doors of our first African facility to our customers, but also to becoming part of the local community. Our first campus has a planned investment of more than US$ 1 billion, and it will create hundreds of jobs to positively impact the local economy.”
Adopting the same campus blueprint as other Vantage projects, this campus will lean on sustainable construction practices – which Vantage said will include permeable landscaping and natural on-site drainage – and offer renewable energy options.
Vantage will also 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.
Vantage's global expansion has seen it step out of its native US to establish operations in two Canadian markets in early 2019; six European markets in 2020; and five markets in Asia Pacific this year.
“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 center providers in the world.”
