MICROSOFT OPENS FIRST Datacentres in Africa with General
Availability of Microsoft Azure I am pleased to announce the general availability of Microsoft Azure from our new cloud regions in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. Nedbank, Peace Parks Foundation, and eThekwini water are just a few of the organizations in Africa leveraging Microsoft cloud services today and will benefit from the increased computing resources and connectivity from our new cloud regions.
2ND QUARTER 2019
by Tom Keane Corporate Vice President, Azure Global, Microsoft Azure
SYNAPSE
4
THE LAUNCH of these regions marks a major milestone for Microsoft as we open our first enterprise-grade datacenters in Africa, becoming the first global provider to deliver cloud services from datacenters on the continent. The new regions provide the latest example of our ongoing investment to help enable digital transformation and advance technologies such as AI, cloud, and edge computing across Africa. By delivering the comprehensive Microsoft Cloud — comprising Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics 365 — from datacenters in a given geography, we offer scalable, available, and resilient cloud services to companies and organizations while meeting data residency, security, and compliance needs. We have deep expertise in protecting data and empowering customers around the globe to meet extensive security and privacy requirements, including offering the broadest set of compliance certifications and attestations in the industry. With 54 regions announced worldwide, more than any other cloud provider, Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure will connect the new regions in South Africa with greater business opportunity, help accelerate new global investment, and improve access to cloud and Internet services across Africa. Accelerating digital transformation in Africa As we execute our expansion strategy, we consider the demand for locally delivered cloud services and the opportunity for digital transformation in the market. According to a study from IDC, spending on public cloud services in South Africa will nearly triple over the next five years, and the adoption of cloud services will generate nearly 112,000 net-new jobs in South Africa by the end of
2022. The increased utilization of public cloud services and the additional investments into private and hybrid cloud solutions will enable organizations in South Africa to focus on innovation and building digital businesses at scale. Nedbank, a leading African bank that services a diverse client base in South Africa and the rest of Africa, is pursuing a transformation strategy with the Azure cloud platform to enable its digital aspirations. Microsoft has had a long relationship with Nedbank which has culminated in enabling its migration to the cloud to help increase its competitiveness, agility, and customer focus. Azure also provides compliance technologies that assist Nedbank to increase data privacy and security which are primary concerns of its customers, regulators, and investors. Nedbank has adopted a hybrid and multi-vendor cloud strategy in which Microsoft is an integral partner. The Peace Parks Foundation, in collaboration with Cloudlogic, uses Azure to rapidly deploy infrastructure and solutions in far-flung protected spaces as well as to compute a considerable volume of data around at-risk species and wildlife in multiple conservation areas spanning thousands of kilometers. In efforts to sustain the delicate ecosystem and keystone species, such as the black and white rhinoceros, Peace Parks Foundation processes up to tens of thousands of images captured monthly on wildlife cameras in remote areas to monitor possible poaching activity. In the future, Peace Parks will leverage the new cloud infrastructure for radio over Internet protocol, a high-tech solution to a low-tech problem, to improve radio communication over remote and isolated areas. Continued on page 15
