Equinix has announced plans to enter the South African market with a US$160 million data centre investment in Johannesburg that augments its current footprint on the African continent in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. The new data centre is expected to open mid-2024.
With its South Africa expansion, Equinix is entering one of the largest and most digitally developed nations on the African continent. Already a strategically important connectivity hub for digital networks, South Africa boasts a significant network of submarine communications cables. These strategic links between countries and continents are established at several points across the country’s 2,850 kilometres of coastline.
“We entered the African continent earlier this year with the acquisition of MainOne, the leading West African data centre and connectivity solutions provider with presence in Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire,” said Eugene Bergen, President, EMEA, Equinix.
“This investment will give both South African businesses the opportunity to expand internationally and global businesses to expand into South Africa. Both will be able to accelerate their growth by rapidly scaling their infrastructure, easily adopting hybrid multi-cloud architectures and interconnecting with business partners through the Platform Equinix ecosystem of more than 10,000 customers.”
The announcement is the latest in a series of strategic and significant market entries for the world’s digital infrastructure company.
