Teraco, a Digital Realty company, has announced the completion of its JB4 Bredell Campus data centre expansion in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg. The new facility adds 30MW of critical IT power, making JB4 the largest standalone data centre built in Africa, now supporting a total of 50MW of critical load.
This latest phase comprises six advanced data halls, each supporting 5MW of critical IT load — an African first — featuring fully liquid-to-liquid cooling systems. This innovative cooling approach enables clients to deploy high-density cloud solutions and direct-to-chip cooling, suitable for dense artificial intelligence workloads. Designed with sustainability at its core, JB4 incorporates a state-of-the-art closed-loop chilled water system that provides free air cooling and uses AI-enabled technology to optimise cooling configurations based on real-time IT load and load dispersion. This cutting-edge design achieves industry-leading Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), significantly reducing energy consumption while eliminating water use during ongoing cooling — an essential feature given the continent’s water scarcity challenges.
Built to stringent global hyperscale standards, JB4 significantly enhances South Africa’s and sub-Saharan Africa’s data centre capacity. It follows shortly after Teraco’s JB5 hyperscale facility in Isando, which added another 30MW of critical capacity. Teraco CEO Jan Hnizdo highlighted South Africa’s strategic role as a regional technology hub, boosted by international investments in undersea cables like Equiano and 2Africa. These investments strengthen the country’s position as a gateway for cloud, AI, and content services into Africa, enabling global cloud providers to serve not only South Africa but the wider sub-Saharan region.
Hnizdo underscored Teraco’s commitment to expanding its infrastructure across key hubs, ensuring clients can scale and leverage digital transformation initiatives. The company continues to invest heavily in ICT infrastructure, building Africa’s largest data centre platform. Teraco’s facilities are located in strategic areas such as Ekurhuleni’s Aerotropolis, providing access to numerous network providers, regional internet exchange points (IXPs), content delivery networks, cloud on-ramps, and peering at NAPAfrica, the eighth largest internet exchange globally.
Teraco’s platform now boasts 189MW of critical power across campuses in Isando (JB1/JB3/JB5: 70MW), Bredell (JB2/JB4: 64MW), Cape Town (CT1/CT2: 53MW), and Durban (DB1: 2MW). Organisations across Africa and globally rely on Teraco to support their digital transformation with scalable, reliable, and interconnected infrastructure, fostering hybrid multi-cloud architectures and seamless connectivity within the Platform Teraco ecosystem.
Key facts about JB4 include its status as Africa’s largest standalone data centre with 80,000m² of building space, supported by 80MW of utility power and providing 50MW of critical IT load. The facility features environmentally conscious design elements such as zero-water closed-loop cooling and advanced energy monitoring technology to optimise efficiency. The campus comprises 14 data halls spanning 17,000m² and is the first in Africa to deliver 5MW of critical IT load within a single hall. Located alongside the R21 business corridor, JB4 maintains multiple fibre paths connecting to Teraco’s nearby Isando Campus, reinforcing its role as a vital hub for sub-Saharan Africa’s digital infrastructure. The facility adheres to international standards and certifications, including ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 50001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, PCI-DSS, and ISAE3402.
