Google has announced the opening of a cloud region in South Africa, the company’s first on the continent.
As a competitor, Google will take on industry leaders Amazon and Microsoft in the cloud services space.
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In order to give its clients and partners in Africa access to full-scale cloud capabilities, Google said it is also constructing Dedicated Cloud Interconnect sites in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. These sites connect users’ on-premises networks with Google’s grid.
Google’s worldwide network now includes 35 cloud regions and 106 zones thanks to the addition of South Africa.
To support the sites, Google will use its private undersea cable, Equiano, which links Africa and Europe.
The first Google Cloud region in Africa is something we are thrilled to announce. Application and service localization will be possible in the new region. It will be much simpler for our clients and partners to quickly implement business solutions that allow them to take advantage of computer artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning capabilities, as well as data analytics, to make better business decisions moving forward, according to Niral Patel, director of Google Cloud Africa.
Similarly to how Google revealed its own cloud infrastructure in South Africa, Microsoft announced the launch of two cloud regions in the same year.
In 2020, Amazon used a similar strategy and expanded its AWS data facilities to South Africa.
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This year, Oracle also launched a data center in Johannesburg.
By 2030, the South African cloud region would support the development of more than 40,000 jobs and contribute over $2.1 billion to the country’s GDP, according to research by AlphaBeta Economics.
