US data centre giant to launch R2.8-billion South African facility soon

Equinix — a US-based data centre giant — has confirmed it is on track to launch its first facility in Africa in June 2024.

In December 2022, the company announced that it had invested $160 million (then R2.8 billion) to launch a data centre in Johannesburg.

“We’re happy with the progress to date and we’re well on track to open in June,” Equinix managing director for South Africa, Sandile Dube (pictured above), told MyBroadband.

He added that the company plans to expand its operations in Africa.

“We’ve had a huge amount of interest from both local and international clients and partners,” said Dube.

“There has been significant interest from a large number of global CDNs [content delivery networks] and content providers asking specifically for JINX’s presence in our site for their reach across the content and ISP [Internet service provider] landscape.”

MyBroadband also asked Equinix about the facility’s specifications, which it said it would announce in due course.

In November 2023, Equinix announced it will establish a Johannesburg Internet Exchange (JINX) presence in the data centre when it launches.

The carrier-neutral facility will provide public peering services to Internet connectivity and content providers hosted at its first facility in Johannesburg.

“The partnership of IXP and neutral colocation provider is a critically important feature of internet digital ecosystems hosted at Equinix facilities worldwide,” the company said.

“[The] JINX and Equinix partnership will support and accelerate growth, innovation and evolution of South Africa’s digital economy and e-GDP.”

Dube said the facility will host some of the continent’s biggest cloud and connectivity companies.

“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.

“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.”

Prenesh Padayachee, INX-ZA chair, said the carrier-neutral colocation model adopted by Equinix in South Africa is globally recognised as the optimal environment for Internet services to thrive.

“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.

“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.”

Eugene Bergen, Equinix EMEA president, previously said the company targeted South Africa as it is the most developed economy in sub-Saharan Africa.

However, he added that the company’s expansion plans on the continent include building facilities in five or six other countries.