Data centre and interconnection services provider Teraco has acquired the iconic Great Westerford building, in Rondebosch, Cape Town, which hosts its CT1 data centre, from Ingenuity Property Investments.

The acquisition results in Teraco having full ownership of all facilities and the underlying land that supports its carrier neutral colocation portfolio. CT1 is the second-largest interconnect hub in Africa, with more than 6 300 interconnects and more than 1 000 deployable cabinets supported by 5 MW of utility power.

“We see Great Westerford as the home for technology, professional services, telecommunications and financial services firms looking for the convenience of being located in the heart of Cape Town’s southern suburbs, close to transport nodes, shopping centres and excellent schools, while enjoying access to Teraco’s global digital reach,” says Teraco CEO Jan Hnizdo.

With 30 000 m² of prime grade office space, clients at Great Westerford benefit from having their digital operations and data close to the edge of their networks, increasing performance, reducing connectivity costs and scaling their digital business operations globally, while reaching their entire connected data communities through a single private and secure connection, he notes.

“The Great Westerford acquisition brings an historic South African building into the digital age, which is now capable of supporting its tenants’ physical and digital business requirements.”

As part of Teraco’s broader Cape Town campus, the CT1 data centre provides enterprises with direct access to Platform Teraco comprising a rich ecosystem of over 250 network providers, global cloud on-ramps, subsea cable systems, access to over 50 managed service providers, and direct peering at NAPAfrica, Africa’s largest Internet exchange point.

Clients deployed in either of these facilities can connect to Amazon Web Services Direct Connect and Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute directly, or via Teraco’s Africa Cloud Exchange.

Further, as one of Africa’s most digitally connected cities, Cape Town is a preferred destination for Teraco’s continued investment into data centre infrastructure in South Africa. It is home to thriving digitally connected enterprises, including telecommunications, financial services, e-commerce, logistics and retail.

Cape Town also benefits from being the landing of multiple major subsea cable systems. The abundance of subsea cable connectivity is set to continue with the landing of Google’s Equiano and the 2AFRICA cable systems, Teraco states.