Cover story

Teraco’s newly minted JB5 datacentre.

On my way to OR Tambo International, I asked my Uber driver if he knew what was going on in the gleaming new black building right next to the R24 highway in Isando. His guess was a hotel, which isn’t entirely wrong, just not the kind with beds and room service. Teraco had just finished building and kitting out its newest datacentre in May and I was shown around the place that still smelled of fresh paint and new carpets. The new building, which is called JB5, is a monster 30MW facility, and takes the whole Isando complex to 70MW.

Two weeks after the building was switched on, the hyperscale customers were already moving in, and now occupy four of the eight halls. Two halls are still being built, and construction workers were still bustling in the corridors.