Teraco Data Environments

Last updated
Teraco Data Environments
Company typePrivate
IndustryInternet Infrastructure
Founded2008;16 years ago (2008)
Founders
  • Tim Parsonson
  • Lex van Wyk
Headquarters Isando,
Johannesburg
,
South Africa
Number of locations
7 data centre locations across South Africa
Area served
Sub-Saharan Africa
Parent
Website https://www.teraco.co.za

Teraco Data Environments is a carrier-, cloud- and vendor-neutral data centre provider founded by Tim Parsonson and Lex van Wyk in 2008. On 1 August 2022, Digital Realty announced that it had completed the purchase of a majority stake in Teraco, previously controlled by Berkshire Partners, Permira and a group of investors. [1] [2]

Contents

Overview

As the local telecommunications market began to deregulate, Teraco's founders recognised an opportunity for a truly vendor-neutral data centre offering in South Africa. [3] [4]

The possibility of providing a service that was not tied to any carrier or ISP became not only technically feasible and economically viable, but increasingly desirable to South African enterprises that needed unrestricted choice in how they interconnected their facilities and connected to the internet.

Teraco has brought international best practices in vendor-neutral data centre management to South Africa to give businesses a technically superior, physically safer, and lower-cost environment for their information systems. Teraco manages colocation data centres in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban.

As Africa's leading carrier-neutral colocation provider, Teraco is the first provider of highly resilient, vendor-neutral data environments in sub-Saharan Africa. With its world-class data centre infrastructure and network-dense ecosystems, Teraco forms a vital part of the African internet's backbone and is essential to the modern enterprise's digital transformation strategy. Purpose-built and operated to global best practice by an organisation with an absolute focus on data centre technology and infrastructure, Teraco offers its clients secure, cost-effective, sustainable, scalable, and resilient data centre services.

Its ever-expanding ecosystems move Teraco beyond colocation and establish it as an open marketplace for digital growth and innovation. Discovering new business partners, making strategic interconnection choices, on-ramping to a choice of cloud providers, and reaching new markets globally, Teraco provides a highly secure, flexible, and resilient home for digital organisations across the world.

Teraco is majority-owned by Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR) - offering customers a global data centre platform designed to enable digital business to scale within a highly connected data community across >300 data centres in 50+ metros and 25+ countries on six continents - and a consortium of private equity investors, including Berkshire Partners LLC and Permira. Teraco is a Level 2 BBBEE contributor (DTI Codes).

Data centres

Teraco built Africa's largest data centre in Johannesburg, South Africa. [5] [6] [7] In 2012, the company created NAPAfrica, a fully funded non-profit neutral Internet eXchange Point (IXP). [8] [9] [10] Teraco has additional data centres in Durban and Cape Town. [11]

Peering by NAPAfrica

Xneelo, South Africa's web hosting company, partnered with this company. [12] [13] [14] [15] Telkom peered with NAPAfrica through its Openserve wholesale and network division in 2016. [16] Clients will be able to use the Microsoft service through this company. [17] The telecom operator, Angola Cables, peered with this company in 2017. [18]

Accomplishments and funding

After completing an Environmental Impact Assessment, Teraco was granted permission to store 210,000 litres of diesel on site. [19]

2011: The company received R158 million in Series C financing. [20]

2013: A R200 million medium-term funding facility was provided from Absa's corporate and investment banking division. [21]

2014: Teraco is acquired by Permira in first African investment. [22]

2015: The company acquired R400 million in funding. [23]

2016: Liquid Telecom invested $3.5 million in a new satellite hub. [24]

2017: Barclays Africa Group funded R1.2 billion ($90 million) for Teraco Data Environments. [25] [26]

2022: Digital Realty acquires 55% stake in Teraco Data Environments [27]

Related Research Articles

A colocation center or "carrier hotel", is a type of data centre where equipment, space, and bandwidth are available for rental to retail customers. Colocation facilities provide space, power, cooling, and physical security for the server, storage, and networking equipment of other firms and also connect them to a variety of telecommunications and network service providers with a minimum of cost and complexity.

Telehouse is a major carrier-neutral colocation, information and communications technology services provider based in Docklands, London. Established in 1988, it operates eight facilities in London, Paris and Frankfurt. Part of the global Telehouse network of data centres, the brand has 45 colocation facilities in 26 major cities around the world including Moscow, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Seoul, Tokyo, New York and Los Angeles. KDDI, Telehouse's Japanese telecommunications and systems integration parent company, operates data centre facilities in America and Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Equinix</span> Internet and data center company

Equinix, Inc. is an American multinational company headquartered in Redwood City, California, that specializes in Internet connection and data centers. The company is a leader in global colocation data center market share, with 260 data centers in 33 countries on five continents.

Telecity Group plc, was a European carrier-neutral datacentre and colocation centre provider. It specialised in the design, build and management of datacentre space. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Equinix in January 2016.

Neotel, previously SNO Telecommunications, is the second national operator (SNO) for fixed line telecommunication services in South Africa. It was unveiled on 31 August 2006 in Kyalami in Midrand. Neotel is South Africa's first direct telecommunications competitor to the current telecommunications parastatal, Telkom.

PacketExchange was a British multinational network services provider based in London. Founded in 2002 by Jason Velody and Kieron O'Brien, both supported by Nigel Titley, Giles Heron, and Katie Snowball as the founding team, its network connected 45 points of presence across Europe, Asia, and the United States over a private backbone consisting primarily of multiple 10 Gigabit Ethernet links over dedicated wavelengths on a fiber-optic mesh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Shop</span> South African online auction website

Bob Shop, formerly Bidorbuy or bidorbuy.co.za, is a South African e-commerce website based on an internet auction and online marketplace. Transactions on Bidorbuy are in South African Rand.

Dimension Data is a company specialising in information technology services. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company maintains operations on every inhabited continent. Dimension Data focuses on services including IT consulting, technical and support services, and managed services. The company is the official technology partner of the Tour de France, the Vuelta a España and also sponsored a team of the same name. In 2010, the company was fully acquired by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT). On 1 July 2019, all Dimension Data operations, excluding those in the Middle East and Africa, became part of NTT Ltd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet in South Africa</span> Overview of the Internet in South Africa

The Internet in South Africa, one of the most technologically resourced countries on the African continent, is expanding. The internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .za is managed and regulated by the .za Domain Name Authority (.ZADNA) and was granted to South Africa by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in 1990. Over 60% of Internet traffic generated on the African continent originates from South Africa. As of 2020, 41.5 million people were Internet users.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital Realty</span> American data center provider

Digital Realty is a real estate investment trust that owns, operates and invests in carrier-neutral data centers across the world. The company offers data center, colocation and interconnection services.

Interxion is a provider of carrier and cloud-neutral colocation data centre services in Europe. Founded in 1998 in the Netherlands, the firm was publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange from 28 January 2011 until its acquisition by Digital Realty in March 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet Solutions</span> African telecommunications company

Internet Solutions (IS) is an Internet services provider for public and private sector organisations. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dimension Data Group and part of NTT.

The video games sector in South Africa is one of the largest video games markets and Esports scenes in Africa. The video games sector has overtaken the South African market in movies and music in market value and is still rapidly increasing. In 2016 the South African games industry advocacy group, Interactive Entertainment South Africa, stated that the video game market in the country was worth R2.2 billion whilst the domestic games industry was worth R58 million in 2014. A 2021 study by Newzoo and Carry1st estimates that 40% of sub-Saharan Africa's video game playing population were located in South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Afrihost</span> ISP in South Africa

Afrihost is a South African Internet Service Provider (ISP) providing a number of services, including ADSL broadband, fibre, fixed wireless, mobile services and web hosting. A proposed merger with Cool Ideas, another ISP, has been approved by regulators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OTEL Telecoms</span> South African telecommunication company

OTEL Telecoms is a South African national telecommunications company based in Boksburg. Established in 1995, the company provides Infrastructure as a service VoIP and broadband products.

DuPont Fabros Technology, Inc. (DFT) was a real estate investment trust that invested in carrier-neutral data centers and provided colocation and peering services. In 2017, the company was acquired by Digital Realty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riovic</span> Financial technology company

Riovic Capital Group, or simply Riovic, is a financial technology and investment company that specializes in emerging technologies.

Sybrin is a software company headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa that sells enterprise software and services to the financial services, insurance, and telecommunications industries. Sybrin implemented the first cheque truncation system in Africa, the third in the world, in Malawi.

Xneelo (Pty) Ltd formerly Hetzner (Pty) Ltd is a web hosting company based in South Africa. It was sometimes called Hetzner South Africa to distinguish it from the German partner company Hetzner Online GmbH. The company announced a rebrand to xneelo in July 2019.

Ozow, previously known as i-Pay, is a fintech company based in South Africa.

References

  1. ↑ "Digital Realty completes acquisition of Teraco". Creamer Media's Engineering News. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  2. ↑ "Digital Realty Completes Acquisition of Teraco". PR Newswire. Retrieved 2022-12-29.
  3. ↑ "Teraco raises $90 million for South African data center expansion". DatacenterDynamics. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  4. ↑ "Open Access brings in 5 years of expanding Africa's Internet ecosystem" . Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  5. ↑ "Teraco sets date for launch of Africa's biggest commercial data center". DatacenterDynamics. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  6. ↑ "We saw what South Africa's internet will look like in 5 years – and it's incredible" . Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  7. ↑ "Africa's largest data centre to be built in Johannesburg - CNBC Africa". CNBC Africa. 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  8. ↑ Roanne. "NAPAfrica celebrates five years as Africa's largest IXP". ITWeb Technology News. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  9. ↑ Rawlins, Lauren Kate. "Netflix arrives in SA via Teraco's NAPAfrica". ITWeb Technology News. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  10. ↑ "[IN PICTURES] Inside Africa's biggest internet exchange - htxt.africa". htxt.africa. 2014-07-29. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  11. ↑ "NAPAfrica is doing over 100Gbps of traffic" . Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  12. ↑ Staff Writer. "Teraco secures R1.2 bn from Absa for further investment - ITWeb Africa". www.itwebafrica.com. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  13. ↑ Thakudi, Phahamang. "Hetzner peers with NAP Africa for mutual benefit". ITWeb Technology News. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  14. ↑ "Hetzner breaks 1 petabyte monthly outbound traffic" . Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  15. ↑ "Hetzner joins peering at NAPAfrica - TechCentral". TechCentral. 2017-04-13. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  16. ↑ "Telkom's Openserve to peer at NAPAfrica - TechCentral". TechCentral. 2016-05-04. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  17. ↑ "Teraco partners with Microsoft for Azure ExpressRoute" . Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  18. ↑ "Angola Cables to peer at NAPAfrica – Africa's most connected Internet Exchange". BiztechAfrica. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  19. ↑ "Building Africa's biggest data centre". BiztechAfrica. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  20. ↑ "Teraco Data Environments get R158 million" . Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  21. ↑ "Teraco, Absa in R200m funding deal - TechCentral". TechCentral. 2013-05-13. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  22. ↑ "Permira makes first African investment in data centre firm Teraco". Reuters. 2014-12-04. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  23. ↑ "Teraco plans second Johannesburg datacentre, gets R400bn to do it - htxt.africa". htxt.africa. 2015-01-27. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  24. ↑ Henry, Caleb (2016-03-15). "Liquid Telecom Establishes Second Satellite Hub at Teraco Data Center in South Africa - Via Satellite -". Via Satellite. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  25. ↑ "Permira makes first African investment in data centre firm Teraco". Reuters. 2014-12-04. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  26. ↑ "Teraco Data raises $90m for African data centre rollout". www.capacitymedia.com. Retrieved 2017-12-26.
  27. ↑ "Digital Realty acquires 55% stake in Teraco Data Centres". TECH dot AFRICA. 2022-01-04. Retrieved 2022-01-04.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.