Google to set up a cloud region in South Africa
Google scales up cloud capabilities in the South African region with interconnected sites stretching to Nairobi, Capetown, Johannesburg and Lagos to bring on-premise networks onto Google’s grid.
Google’s decision to set up a cloud region in South Africa came after evaluating market potential, the company said in a statement. In an AlphaBeta Economics report commissioned by Google, South Africa was identified as a “digital sprinter”—one of a handful of countries that represented $3.4 trillion in economic opportunity.
“We are excited to announce the first Google Cloud region in Africa. The new region will allow for the localization of applications and services. It will make it really easier for our customers and partners to quickly deploy solutions for their businesses, whereby they’re able to leverage our computer artificial intelligence or machine learning capabilities, and data analytics to make smarter business decisions as they go forward,” said Google Cloud Africa director, Niral Patel.
Furthermore, Google plans to tap its private subsea cable, Equiano, which connects Africa and Europe, to power the sites. Equiano has been under construction since 2019 and has so far made four landings — in Togo, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa.
With all the laid out plans, cloud companies in Africa, like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services will still have to deal with the large continent’s vast number of countries and their varying privacy and data laws, some of which are stricter than others. Google is working on solutions to make it possible for data collected in certain countries to remain in those countries.
