Dimension Data Opens Johannesburg 1 Data Centre in South Africa
NTT, the parent company of Dimension Data, today formally opened its newest data center in Johannesburg. A tier three facility with a 12MW capacity and 6,000 square meters of IT space, the Johannesburg 1 Data Centre is a component of NTT’s commitment of up to €120 million (R1.2 billion) in the continent of Africa.
The project, which NTT says is “one of several” related projects the business has planned for the future, was initially revealed in 2020, when development on it began. In order to accommodate this expansion over the next years, NTT, which now runs 11 data centers in Africa, aims to expand its data center presence in Johannesburg and other African cities.
The carrier-neutral facility, according to the business, would serve corporations and hyperscalers by giving them access to NTT’s whole ICT stack of services, including managed hybrid cloud, network management, collaboration, security, and application monitoring. The Johannesburg 1 Data Centre was one of six data centers the business opened this year, according to Michael Abendanon, head of Global Data Centres EMEA at NTT, who spoke at the ceremonial unveiling this morning in Centurion.
The project was built in two stages, with the first stage finished and the second stage anticipated to be finished in the upcoming months. According to IDC, between 2020 and 2025, Sub-Saharan Africa would use public cloud services at a compound annual growth rate of 25%.
According to Abendanon, NTT has identified huge opportunities in Africa – a continent which only has 1% of the global data centre footprint.
“Africa’s growth and reliance on technology is fuelling digital transformation initiatives and demand for high-performing data centre space. Estimates show that 615 million users in Sub-Saharan Africa will subscribe to mobile services by 2025, a 24% increase from 2020.
“Our presence in Africa is underpinned by the significant digital change we’re seeing across the continent. Companies providing new digital services need data centre space with high power density, global connectivity, carrier neutrality, cloud network access, and on-site support to ensure they can continue to grow,” noted Abendanon.
NTT claims that the facility’s technical infrastructure is supported by highly redundant cooling systems, N+1 uninterruptible power supply systems, and generator backup. According to the firm, this will give organizations the specialized sustainable infrastructure, operational management, and design flexibility they need to meet their high-performance requirements.
The facility uses air-cooled chillers and a closed-loop chilled water system, which prevents evaporation of the water passing through the cooling systems. In addition to enabling the data center to achieve low power and water usage effectiveness, this lessens the risk of potential drought water limitations.