Exactly one year ago today, Microsoft staged a local meet with media reps to discuss the importance of cloud services for local businesses. At the time, Microsoft’s Head of Cloud Technology Mr. Ruediger Dorn revealed that had South Africa successfully met the criteria required by the U.S.-based corporation for data centres.
The Redmond-based corporation has finally opened Africa first’s data centres in the named country. Based in the country’s Cape Town and Johannesburg cities, the facilities are accompanied by the general availability of Azure services. This effectively makes the corporation one of the global tech company to deliver cloud services from data centres in the continent.
This development implies that businesses several businesses will be able to securely and reliably move their operations to the cloud while meeting compliance requirements.
It has also been reported that medium to large organizations in the continent are taking advantage of cloud services, as the number of such organization has doubled between 2013 and 2018. In fact, more than 90 percent of surveyed companies in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa are planning to increase their budget for cloud services.
“Microsoft Azure is now available from our new cloud regions in Cape Town and Johannesburg. The combination of Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure with the new regions in Africa will create greater economic opportunity for organisations in Africa, accelerate new global investment, and improve access to cloud and internet services,” says Yousef Khalidi, corporate vice president, Azure Networking, Microsoft.
“Today is a milestone moment in bringing the global cloud closer to home for African citizens and businesses. Enterprises across Africa can now take full advantage of the many benefits of Microsoft Azure, using cloud services to maintain security and meet compliance standards,” adds Ibrahim Youssry, general manager, North, West, East, Central Africa, Levant & Pakistan, Microsoft.
Microsoft has been in Africa for more than three decades and has since partnered with over 10,000 businesses. Its presence in Africa has also seen the launch of programs such as 4Afrika Initiative, among other student-focused and AI-based competitions.
“We’re working with partners to accelerate cloud readiness and adoption in Africa, ensuring enterprises can deliver services to market faster, businesses can make more data-driven decisions, and governments can better connect with citizens,” adds Youssry.