Two of the biggest players in the cloud space, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google, are planning to enhance their presence in South Africa.
Amazon and its cloud computing arm AWS have announced the opening of a new office in Johannesburg. The office will aim to bolster South Africa’s burgeoning cloud market and provide a range of cloud-based services to organisations of all sizes.
AWS says that the new office continues Amazon’s growing investment in South Africa, which began in 2004 in Cape Town with the launch of a development centre to pioneer technologies focused on networking, next-generation software for customer support, and software programs used by AWS, among other technologies.
In 2020, Amazon launched the Africa (Cape Town) Region, the first AWS Infrastructure Region in South Africa. However, plans for the construction of a new Cape Town-based Amazon Africa headquarters were blocked earlier this year by the Cape Town High Court as Amazon had allegedly not gone through the proper process to acquire the land.
Google, meanwhile, is planning a cloud region in Cape Town with a data centre likely to be housed inside an upcoming Africa Data Centres (ADC) facility.
The Data Centre Dynamics website says the 20MW facility will cover 15,000 square metres in eight data halls. Work is set to start on the site in the last quarter of 2022. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2023.
Google is the last of the major US cloud players to enter the South African data centre market. This, however, is rather timely news given that Google’s new Equiano cable linking Portugal to South Africa went live last week.