Brazil’s V.tal cuts ribbon on US$20mn Colombian datacenter

With investments of US$20mn, Brazilian datacenter and fiber neutral network V.tal inaugurated its second edge datacenter in Colombia, dubbed BDC2 (or Chiva 2).

Located in Barranquilla and adjacent to V.tal’s first site, BDC2 was previously expected to go live by the end of 2023.

As previously reported by BNamericas, the site is projected to have total power capacity of 3MW and space for up to 200 racks, after the completion of all of its expansion phases. The datacenter is also due to have 3,300m2 in built area.

The facility is going live with at least one major company as anchor tenant: submarine cable operator Trans Americas Fiber System signed up to land its TAM-1 submarine system at Chiva 2. 

With an initial length of 7,000km and with AT&T as anchor tenant, TAM-1 will connect several countries with dozens of landing stations.

In an interview with BNamericas last month, Trans Americas CCO Mario Montero said that the southern and main trunk of the cable, which includes Barranquilla as a landing point, is due to be ready for service in 3Q25.

V.tal said TAM-1 will be strategic for its operations because it will also function as a redundancy route in the interconnection with the Americas.

BDC2 is aimed at telecom operators and internet, content and cloud providers with a higher volume of data processing and low latency needs.

The previous site, BDC1 (Chiva 1), has total power of 1MW and 80 racks capacity. It also houses an internet exchange point (IXP) allowing the exchange of content in the region between carriers and internet, cloud, global and local content providers.

“Barranquilla is the city where Colombia exchanges data with the world and, therefore, consolidated itself as a strategic place to install a datacenter. At BDC2 we will offer colocation services, interconnection with content and cloud providers and other clients to exchange traffic, as well as access to all the services offered by V.tal in its terrestrial and submarine fiber optic network,” Fábio Laguado, head of Latin America and US sales, said in a statement.

BDC2 relies on terrestrial connectivity with Bogotá and other countries where V.tal. through its GlobeNet operation is located: Argentina, Bermuda, Chile, Colombia, the US and Venezuela.

The group reports 26,000km of submarine cables and over 400,000km of terrestrial fiber optics, mostly in Brazil.

BDC2 was designed to use energy efficiency solutions such as enclosing equipment through hot and cold air passageways and energy-saving systems.

At present, V.tal operates two datacenters in Fortaleza and one in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in addition to the Colombian facilities. The company also acquired land for a third site in Fortaleza, which will be its first hyperscale-focused datacenter.

V.tal is also investing 250mn reais in the construction of a datacenter in Porto Alegre, its first in the country’s south.

Construction is expected to begin later this year, with activation expected for the second half of 2024. The site goes live in its first phase with two data halls and 3MW of capacity, V.tal's CTO Cícero Olivieri previously told BNamericas.

V.tal's main shareholders are funds from BTG Pactual, Brazil's Oi and Canada's CPP.