Projects
A selection of projects I have worked on is:
- Feasibility Business Plan, South & East Africa – This work is for an established network infrastructure player in the data centre space. I was bought on as part of a team to assess the opportunities within their business to expand further into the data centre space. This involved working with the management team to inform them on the state of the African data centre market, review and agree opportunities for their business, and build a business plan to pursue the opportunity. To date, we have pulled together a business plan for one sector of the market, which is due for board approval, and are developing further opportunities to expand into other markets.
- New entrant feasibility, West Africa – This new entrant is a well-established ICT and equipment supplier in the Middle East and Africa. They are looking to expand their product offering into data centres. As part of a team, I am providing input to the feasibility study on the data centre strategy, go to market plan, design concepts, build costs and operations.
- African colocation operator, site selection, Africa – This colocation operator has an ambitious plan to expand their footprint into more than 10 new markets in the next 18 months. In preparation for this, I am leading a site selection team that is currently looking at 14 locations across Africa for suitable sites. This involves working with owners, developers and local authorities to establish if the site in question is suitable for hosting a data centre. To achieve this, I am managing a team of engineers, architects and specialists who are undertaking studies and surveys of the sites. The outcome of which is a RED flag report that is used in the business case.
- European private equity Firm, data centre due diligence, Nigeria – For this project, the client was looking to take a majority shareholding in a data centre operator located in Nigeria. I undertook a review of the technical information of the data centre operator’s portfolio of facilities. With a focus on the design, operation and expansion plans as well as capex and opex projections. This information was used to inform the business model and offer to purchase.
- New colocation/hyperscale data centre, Johannesburg – A global data centre operator is in the final stages of a feasibility for their first site in Johannesburg. The project is seeking funding from a global data centre financier and has been in a due diligence process for the last couple of months, this has now concluded. As part of this process, I provided technical input and prepared a site due diligence on the proposed site. This involved collating information from the site owner/developer, local authorities, and the operator to prepare a ‘red flag’ and audit report on the site characteristics, available services, and planning processes for the local municipality.
- Global colocation operator, Johannesburg – This global operator has numerous sites in South Africa. I pulled together a team to undertake a site audit and due diligence of each site, I led this team as the project director. This project involved undertaking a site investigation, preparation of site audit reports on the condition of the building and equipment, multi-year replacement strategy, feasibility capital costs and total cost of ownership calculations.
- New entrant feasibility study – This project involves preparing a study on the state of the data centre market in South Africa and the opportunities it is presents for developers new to the market. The study includes analysis on major players in the market, the South African opportunity, current selling, construction and operation costs and development opportunities. Phase 2 of this project will involve undertaking site assessments on potential sites the developer has in their portfolio.
- Global colocation provider, Johannesburg – This project is the client’s first on the African continent. Arup undertook due diligence and test fit exercise on the selected site and design is now underway, concept is complete, awaiting approval to proceed to detailed design. The project will be phased with a final day IT load of 7.5MW spread over 7,500m2 of white space. I led the local engineering team in the completion of the site due diligence and working as the design team interface for the client with the local developer.
- Africa data centres, Johannesburg – This project involves the development of a new data centre on the client’s existing campus. The project consists of 4 x 1,500m2 data halls (3 x colocation, 1 x hyperscale) with a final day IT capacity of 10MW. The project started on site in October 2019 and will be complete March 2021. Arup is the lead consultant on this project, providing all engineering, architecture and project management for the design and supervision of the general contractor during construction. This is a client I developed over a couple of years and was the first major project with them. I was the project director/design manager with overall responsibility for Arup. In this role I worked closely with the client and their project manager to manage scope, timeline and budget of the project from concept to completion.
- SA bank, Johannesburg – A major bank in South Africa, this site is their primary data centre. This project involved performing a due diligence of the existing installation, site masterplan detailed design and construction supervision of 3 x 1,200m2 data halls with a final day of 6MW to Uptime Tier IV. The day 1 upgrade to 4MW was completed in 2017. Arup provided project management, engineering and architectural design and supervision for this project, I was the project director responsible for the project.
- Hyperscaler, Cape Town – This phased project began in 2017. Phase 1 involved the construction of a single data hall with an IT load of 2.5MW, it was completed in 2019. Phase 2 is another single data hall with a capacity of 2.5MW which was completed in March 2020. Arup was employed by the contractor as their MEP engineer to guide the development of their construction deliverables, interface with the client and develop their commissioning process and strategy. I was Arup’s project director and the lead mechanical engineer.
- Africa Data Centres, Mombasa, Kenya – This modular data centre is a landing station for an incoming submarine cable. It will be designed and supplied by a turn-key supplier. It will have a final capacity of 1MW across 225 racks. Arup developed the client’s brief and employer’s requirements. We reviewed the supplier’s design and will manage the delivery of the project, it is due for completion in late 2020. On this project I was the lead mechanical engineer and project director.
- SA Bank Faire Glen, Pretoria – This site is the bank’s disaster recovery site. This project involved performing a site due diligence, detailed design of 2 x 1,500m2 data halls to a final day of 6MW, Uptime Tier IV. The project included upgrades of infrastructure to the site, including a disaster recovery centre and 250,000L of diesel storage. Arup provided project management, engineering and architectural design for this project. I was the project director responsible for the project.
- Internet Solutions, Venus 4, Johannesburg – This project involved the fit out of a 500kW, 100 rack data hall at Internet Solutions existing data centre campus in Johannesburg. Arup performed a due diligence on the site, reviewed the suppliers design and supervised the installation. I was the mechanical engineer and project director for the project.
- Internet Solutions, Johannesburg – Arup performed a due diligence on this site to identify key issues and provide solutions as Internet Solutions were having issues with ‘hot spots’ in the white space and a higher than expected PUE due to the under-performing ‘Kyoto Wheel’ cooling system. The outcome was various interventions to address issues around airflow in the space and to reduce the overall energy consumption of the facility. I was the mechanical engineer and project director for the project.