Biggest data centres in South Africa

South Africa’s largest data centre is Teraco’s Isando campus in Johannesburg, which provides roughly 32,000m² of hosting space and can support 70MW of critical IT load.

Data centre capacity has expanded rapidly in South Africa as local Internet access has grown, increasing the space needed for content and services hosted closer to users in the country.

South Africa also acts as a gateway to the Internet for many other Southern African countries where telecoms infrastructure and financial feasibility may not support such facilities.

South Africa’s five biggest data centres have a combined 230MW of critical IT load support.

To put that into perspective, they would require roughly 100,000 six-panel home solar power systems running at peak production to operate at full load.

Founded in 2008, Teraco is South Africa’s largest data centre company by hosting space and capacity.

US firm Digital Realty acquired a 55% stake in the company for $3.5 billion 2022. That means that Teraco had a valuation of roughly R57 billion two years ago.

Teraco’s first and biggest campus — Isando in Kempton Park — consists of three facilities — JB1, JB3, and JB5.

The trio host more than 285 network service providers, 160 IT services providers, 160 enterprises and financial services providers, and 50 content providers.

The campus also serves as the on-ramp to all major global cloud services — including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle.

JB1 East was the first section of the data centre, launching with around 1,250m² of space in January 2010.

The substantial growth in demand for carrier-neutral colocation boosted Teraco, which began its als runs South Africa’s largest Internet exchange point — NAPAfrica.

Teraco announced a further 40MW critical load and 12,000m² hosting space expansion to its Isando Campus — JB7 — in November 2024.

The facility is scheduled for completion by 2026 and is being funded with an R8-billion syndicated loan.

It will take the Isando Campus’s total critical load to 110MW and increase its hosting space to 44,000m².

Four more giants

Teraco also operates the second and third largest data centres in South Africa — the 64MW Bredell Campus in Kempton Park and 50MW Brackenfell Campus in Cape Town.

The biggest South African data centre operated by a company other than Teraco is Africa Data Centres’ JHB1 campus, with 20MW critical IT workload capacity.

The campus is situated in Midrand and features 8,500m² of floor space.

Vantage Data Centers’ Johannesburg I Campus in Waterfall City, Gauteng, is the fifth largest by critical IT load but fourth-biggest by space.

Its first facility — JNB1 — was completed in 2022 and has a 16MW critical load across 12,000m².

The plan is to expand the campus with another two facilities, each with another 32MW load and 24,000m² space.

The first of these — JNB2 — was initially slated for completion by 2024 but does not appear to be fully online yet.

Once this facility and an envisioned JNB3 site are operational, Johannesburg I will have a combined IT workload capacity of 80MW spread over 60,000m².

Below is a summary of the key specifications of the five biggest data centres in South Africa by critical IT load.

1. Isando Campus — Teraco

• Location: Kempton Park, Gauteng
• Whitespace: 32,000m² (+12,000m² planned)
• Supported IT load: 70MW (+40MW planned)

2. Bredell Campus — Teraco

• Location: Kempton Park, Gauteng
• Whitespace: 21,000m²
• Supported IT load: 64MW

3. Brackenfell Campus — Teraco

• Location: Brackenfell, Cape Town
• Whitespace: 18,000m²
• Supported IT load: 50MW

4. JHB1 — Africa Data Centres

• Location: Midrand, Gauteng
• Whitespace: 8,500m²
• Supported IT load: 20MW

5. Johannesburg I — Vantage Data Centres

• Location: Waterfall City, Gauteng
• Whitespace: 12,000m² (+48,000m² planned)
• Supported IT load: 16MW (+64MW planned)