{"id":609822,"date":"2025-09-08T07:05:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=609822"},"modified":"2025-09-08T07:05:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:05:16","slug":"inside-a-global-giants-multibillion-rand-data-centre-in-johannesburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cloud-hosting\/609822-inside-a-global-giants-multibillion-rand-data-centre-in-johannesburg.html","title":{"rendered":"Inside a global giant’s multibillion-rand data centre in Johannesburg"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s communications minister Solly Malatsi visited Equinix’s JN1 data centre facility in Johannesburg to discuss opportunities for data centre investment in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malatsi shared photos of his visit to the impressive facility, which spans over 1,900 square metres and has 4MW of critical IT load capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I visited the Equinix JN1 Data Centre in Johannesburg to discuss opportunities for data centre investment in South Africa,” Malatsi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Data centres are the backbone of the digital economy, powering everything from cloud services to AI. We aim to position South Africa as Africa’s data centre hub.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies described the visit as one of Malatsi’s major milestones in accelerating South Africa’s digital transformation and driving inclusive growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The JN1 Data Centre represents a multibillion-rand investment in South Africa’s digital future, positioning Johannesburg as a key connectivity hub for the African continent,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“High-performance data centres like JN1 are the backbone of digital transformation, enabling innovation, attracting investment, and creating opportunities for businesses and communities to thrive.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department said building a robust, inclusive, and globally competitive digital economy will require engaging investors to ensure continued economic growth and job creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We committed to ongoing engagements to identify solutions to the sector’s challenges and opportunities for the growth of more data centres in South Africa,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US data centre giant Equinix announced in December 2022 that it would invest R2.8 billion<\/a> in South Africa’s data centre market to establish a presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“South Africa was a big target for Equinix as it is the most developed economy in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Equinix EMEA president Eugene Bergen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are focusing to get into Africa, and we are looking at another five or six countries to enter.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March 2024, the company confirmed it was on track to launch<\/a> the data centre facility, its first in Africa, in June 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Powerful partners<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Sandile Dube, Equinix managing director for South Africa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Located in Germiston and launched in October 2024, the carrier-neutral JN1 data centre provides public peering services to Internet connectivity and hosting providers hosted at the facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equinix said that it plans to establish a Johannesburg Internet Exchange (JINX) presence within the facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The partnership of IXP and neutral colocation provider is a critically important feature of internet digital ecosystems hosted at Equinix facilities worldwide,” Equinix said when it launched the facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The JINX and Equinix partnership will support and accelerate growth, innovation and evolution of South Africa’s digital economy and e-GDP.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equinix managing director for South Africa, Sandile Dube, previously told MyBroadband that the facility will host some of Africa’s biggest cloud and connectivity companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are delighted to welcome JINX on board as a well-established and trusted partner that is firmly embedded in the connectivity fabric of South Africa,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We will be launching with a remarkably strong partner base that includes some of the biggest cloud and connectivity companies in Africa, and JINX forms an integral part of that strategy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

INX-ZA chair, Prenesh Padayachee, said Equinix’s carrier-neutral colocation model used in South Africa is globally recognised as the optimal environment for Internet services to thrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Equinix has an outstanding reputation for championing growth of digital economies, hosting thousands of service providers and serving billions of Internet users worldwide,” said Padayachee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are thrilled to be launching our new node in Equinix JN1 Data Centre, and we look forward to delivering on our shared vision, growing and evolving Internet services in Johannesburg and South Africa together.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are photos from Malatsi’s visit to Equinix’s JN1 data centre facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Communications minister Solly Malatsi visited Equinix’s Johannesburg data centre to discuss data centre investment in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":609848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[76860,83295,101329,83299,90793,76862],"class_list":["post-609822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloud-hosting","tag-department-of-communications-and-digital-technologies","tag-equinix","tag-equinix-jn1","tag-eugene-bergen","tag-sandile-dube","tag-solly-malatsi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609822"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":609877,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609822\/revisions\/609877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}