Microsoft has expanded its Azure ExpressRoute Metro footprint into Africa, designating Africa Data Centres’ JHB1 facility in Johannesburg as a peering location—the continent’s first such deployment. The move, announced July 20, 2026, pairs JHB1 with the existing Teraco JT1 site to create a dual-site metro configuration aimed at eliminating single points of failure for enterprise cloud connectivity.

A Second Site for Johannesburg

The heart of this update is that Johannesburg now hosts not one, but two physically separate Azure network edge sites. Microsoft’s ExpressRoute Metro architecture requires two distinct peering locations within a single metropolitan area, providing physical-site redundancy that a single data center with multiple links cannot match.

Africa Data Centres’ JHB1 facility joins Teraco’s JT1, both now listed under “Johannesburg Metro” in Microsoft’s official ExpressRoute documentation. Each facility houses Microsoft’s networking edge equipment, allowing enterprises to establish private connections to Azure services hosted in the South Africa North region—the Azure region that actually runs the compute and storage.

Cassava Technologies, the parent company of Africa Data Centres, confirmed that its cloud and cybersecurity unit, Liquid C2, will offer a managed connectivity service called Secure CloudConnect to help businesses tap into this new infrastructure. That gives organizations in Johannesburg a straightforward, pre-packaged path to using the Metro setup without having to negotiate cross-connects and peering arrangements on their own.

The distinction between a peering location and an Azure region often trips up newcomers. An Azure region is where Microsoft’s own data centers sit, running your virtual machines and databases. A peering location is a colocation facility—a neutral meeting point—where Microsoft parks its routers to hand off traffic from your network to Azure’s private backbone. By having two of these within Johannesburg, Microsoft significantly raises the bar for uptime.

What Dual-Site Resilience Means for Your Azure Workloads

If your organization runs hybrid applications that span an on-premises data center and Azure, you’ve probably relied on a single ExpressRoute connection. Standard ExpressRoute circuits come with built-in redundancy—two physical links within the same peering location—but they remain vulnerable to a facility-level disaster. A fire, a power failure, or a fiber cut affecting that one building can take your private cloud link offline. The Metro configuration fixes that.

With two peering locations, you can design circuits that terminate at different physical sites. When one site goes dark, your network automatically fails over to the other, provided you’ve architected it correctly. For South African enterprises running critical workloads—think ERP systems, real-time financial transactions, or patient record databases—the added resilience is a tangible upgrade.

Liquid C2’s Secure CloudConnect aims to abstract some of that complexity. As a managed service, it can supply and manage the cross-connects, routing, and failover logic, letting customers focus on their applications instead of networking nitty-gritty. However, companies that already have relationships with other ExpressRoute providers, such as Equinix or OpenAccessDC (both listed as Johannesburg Metro providers), can work directly with them to build a dual-site topology.

Administrators should be clear: this doesn’t automatically make your existing ExpressRoute circuits more resilient. If your circuit terminates only at Teraco JT1, you still have a single-site dependency. To benefit, you’ll need a second circuit at JHB1—or a single circuit that spans both, depending on the provider’s capabilities—and configure your network for path selection and failover. For many, a phased approach makes sense: start with a pilot, test disaster scenarios, and then migrate production traffic.

The Long Road to Redundant Cloud Connections in Africa

Azure first landed in Africa in 2019 with the launch of the South Africa North and South Africa West regions, bringing Microsoft’s cloud closer to users on the continent. ExpressRoute has been available since then, but it relied on single-site peering in Johannesburg (via Teraco). For years, any organization needing private Azure connectivity had to accept that a facility outage would sever the link.

Microsoft introduced the Metro concept initially in larger global markets—London, Sydney, Tokyo—and has been steadily expanding it. The Johannesburg expansion signals a maturing cloud infrastructure in Africa, where enterprises increasingly demand enterprise-grade resilience. Cassava Technologies, through its Africa Data Centres arm, operates the JHB1 facility as a carrier-neutral, Tier III design site, making it a natural candidate for such a designation.

The announcement also reflects a broader trend of managed service providers bridging the gap between complex cloud networking and end-users. Liquid C2’s Secure CloudConnect isn’t just a connectivity pipe; it’s a managed path that includes security, monitoring, and integration, which could accelerate adoption among midsize businesses that lack a deep networking bench.

For context, other African hubs like Cape Town or Nairobi have ExpressRoute sites, but none yet in a Metro pair. Johannesburg now joins a short list of global metro areas with this enhanced capability, underlining its status as the continent’s primary cloud gateway.

Steps to Take Advantage of Johannesburg Metro

If you’re an IT decision-maker in a South African organization using Azure, here’s how to move forward:

  1. Assess your current setup. Determine whether your ExpressRoute circuit terminates at one or both Johannesburg peering locations. Check your Azure portal or work with your connectivity provider to map the physical path.
  2. Evaluate provider options. Microsoft’s docs list Equinix, OpenAccessDC, and now Liquid C2 as service providers for Johannesburg Metro. Reach out to them for pricing, SLAs, and technical capabilities. If you prefer a managed experience, Liquid C2’s Secure CloudConnect is a direct entry point. If you have existing relationships, discuss adding a second site.
  3. Design for failure. Added physical redundancy means little if your routing protocol (BGP) isn’t tuned to fail over quickly, or if your firewall rules don’t account for two paths. Work with your network team to set up active/active or active/passive configurations, and test them rigorously before go-live.
  4. Consider managed services. For smaller IT teams, managing dual-site ExpressRoute with BGP, cross-connects, and monitoring can be daunting. A managed service like Secure CloudConnect can offload that burden, often with bundled security services like DDoS protection and intrusion detection.
  5. Watch costs. Adding a second ExpressRoute circuit means additional port charges, cross-connect fees, and possibly higher bandwidth commitments. Run the numbers against the cost of downtime for your critical applications. For many, the math will favor the upgrade.
  6. Test, test, test. Simulate a total loss of one peering site during a maintenance window. Ensure your applications gracefully reconnect, and that dependent services—like on-premises DNS or Active Directory—remain reachable.

What to Watch Next

The Johannesburg Metro adds a crucial piece to Africa’s cloud resilience puzzle, but it’s likely just the start. Microsoft may expand Metro availability to Cape Town, where another South Africa Azure region (South Africa West) and an existing ExpressRoute site reside. That would give organizations using both regions a truly regional multi-site fabric.

As for providers, expect more African operators to seek ExpressRoute Metro status as competition heats up. Liquid C2’s all-in-one cloud connectivity play could spur other local providers to offer similar packages, driving down prices and increasing adoption. For enterprises, the coming months are a window to modernize their Azure connections before the rush. The infrastructure is in place; now it’s about execution.