Google has announced that they have launched the first Google Cloud region on the continent and its location will be based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Details
According to Google, the Google Cloud region in Johannesburg will help accelerate the African tech ecosystem, providing organizations with the resources they need to scale, innovate, and compete in the global marketplace.
By The Numbers
Africa’s internet economy is estimated to reach $180 billion by 2025, accounting for 5.2% of the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Google has committed $1 billion to boost Africa’s digital transformation, recognizing that key drivers of the continent’s growth will include investing in infrastructure, nurturing the growing tech talent pool, and enabling a vibrant startup ecosystem.
Why This Matters
A cloud region is a geographical area where a cloud service provider operates data centers that offer cloud computing services. Some of the benefits of a cloud region are:
- Performance: Choosing a cloud region like South Africa can reduce network latency and improve the speed and quality of cloud applications on the continent.
- Disaster recovery: Having multiple cloud regions can help you ensure the availability and reliability of your cloud applications in case of a failure or disruption in one region. Customers can use backup or failover mechanisms to switch to another region in the event of a disaster.
What They’re Saying
“As a company that’s committed to creating financial satisfaction in emerging markets, we’ve seen incredible scale and impact owing to Google Cloud’s infrastructure. The new cloud region brings our services closer to millions of people who need it, setting the pace for much bigger digital transformation across Africa. Powered by our collaboration with Google Cloud, people experience payments and digital banking differently everyday through our products.
We’re excited to scale this impact to more markets with greater support from the new Google Cloud region.” – Felix Ike, Chief Technology Officer, Moniepoint
“We celebrate the opening of the new cloud region at a time where we have been reflecting on the transformative impact the Advanced Data Analytics Management Platform (ADAM), built on Google Cloud’s infrastructure, has had on African telecoms. Powered by Google Cloud and expertly guided by Deloitte, ADAM has set new standards in leveraging near real-time data analytics to revolutionize customer experiences.
Built to scale across 19 markets, ADAM processes an astounding 4 trillion data records monthly, enabling data-driven decision-making like never before, closing significant skills gaps, democratizing insights and enhancing customer satisfaction. The collaboration we have in place with Google Cloud is more than a technological alliance; the opening of the cloud region in Johannesburg will level this up to become a catalyst for sustainable, data-driven growth and a brighter future for Africa.” – Mohanoe Mokhitli, General Manager, Data & Analytics Centre of Excellence, MTN Group.
Source: Google
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