Equinix Opens Its First Data Center In Johannesburg
Equinix Opens Its First Data Center In Johannesburg. Equinix, Inc., the world’s digital infrastructure company™, has opened its first International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in South Africa.
The new Equinix facility, known as JN1, is located in Germiston, Johannesburg, and is already welcoming new customers and partners. JN1 is a key facility within the Equinix global network, designed to support and enhance growing digital infrastructure and connectivity in the region including access for businesses of all sizes to cloud and connectivity services from this new Johannesburg base.
As the business capital of Southern Africa, Johannesburg is home to a thriving economy and talent pool. The JN1 site is in a key economic center and a rapidly growing interconnection point on the African continent. Already a strategically important connectivity hub for digital networks, South Africa boasts a significant network of submarine cables across its expansive coastline. Strong financial services, industrial and professional services sectors have resulted in local and international firms using the city as a hub for regional operations and the city attracts a large number of foreign and local investments making it the ideal location for Equinix’s first data center in the country.
The new facility provides over 20,000 square feet (1,900+ square meters) of colocation space in its initial phase, with plans for expansion to more than 100,000 square feet (9,515 square meters) at full build out. The site boasts significant power capacity making it suitable for high-density deployments with the capability to implement liquid cooling to support those deployments.JN1 has 700 cabinets in its initial phase, with plans for 3,475 cabinets when fully built out.
Sandile Dube, Managing Director for South Africa at Equinix said, “Our brand new JN1 data center in Johannesburg serves as a powerful platform for people and businesses to connect, innovate, and flourish not only in South Africa but also beyond. The new site presents a truly unique opportunity for South Africans as it places us firmly on the map and will be a key interconnection hub on the continent to some of the fastest growing countries and businesses in the world. It is a proud day for me to be leading this expansion into South Africa and I believe that this is a crucial milestone for the country in its digital and connectivity journey for thousands of residents”.
New deployments of some of South Africa’s most well established businesses including Liquid Intelligent Technologies, Intelys Technology Group, SEACOM and WorkOnline Communications as well as the INX-ZA’s Johannesburg Internet Exchange (JINX) have already been established.
Equinix is committed to sustainability with a near term approved science-based target to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% by 2030 against a 2019 baseline. The opening of this new site demonstrates Equinix’ commitment to the continent as it continues to invest in its African operations. In April 2022 it acquired MainOne which has data centers in Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.
