Google Picks South Africa For Its First Cloud Region In Africa (techcrunch.com) 16
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Tech giant Google has today announced the launch of a cloud region in South Africa, its first in the continent, playing catch-up to other top providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, which made inroads into the continent a few years ago. Google said it is also building Dedicated Cloud Interconnect sites, which link users' on-premises networks with Google's grid, in Nairobi (Kenya), Lagos (Nigeria) and South Africa (Capetown and Johannesburg), in its quest to provide full-scale cloud capabilities for its customers and partners in Africa.
Google plans to tap its private subsea cable, Equiano, which connects Africa and Europe, to power the sites. Equiano has been under development since 2019 and has so far made four landings -- in Togo, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa. South Africa now joins Google's global network of 35 cloud regions and 106 zones worldwide, and the announcement follows the recent preview launch of regions in Malaysia, Thailand and New Zealand. Google Cloud regions allow users to deploy cloud resources from specific geographic locations, and access several services including cloud storage, compute engine and key management systems.
The decision to set up a region in South Africa was informed by the demand for cloud services and the market's potential. Still, the company is looking to launch in more markets within the continent as demand for its products soars. Its early adopters include large enterprise companies, and e-commerce firms like South Africa's TakeAlot and Kenya's Twiga. According to research by AlphaBeta Economics, commissioned by Google Cloud, the South Africa cloud region will contribute over $2.1 billion to South Africa's GDP and support the creation of more than 40,000 jobs by 2030. Google Cloud, Azure by Microsoft and AWS are the three biggest public cloud storage players in the world, according to data from Gartner, but it's unclear why, until now, Google has been absent in Africa. "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.
"What we're doing here is giving customers and partners a choice on where they'd like to store their data and where they'd like to consume cloud services, especially in the context of data sovereignty. This allows customers to then store the data in the country should they choose to do so... I guess for me the most important element is that it gives customers the element of choice."
Google plans to tap its private subsea cable, Equiano, which connects Africa and Europe, to power the sites. Equiano has been under development since 2019 and has so far made four landings -- in Togo, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa. South Africa now joins Google's global network of 35 cloud regions and 106 zones worldwide, and the announcement follows the recent preview launch of regions in Malaysia, Thailand and New Zealand. Google Cloud regions allow users to deploy cloud resources from specific geographic locations, and access several services including cloud storage, compute engine and key management systems.
The decision to set up a region in South Africa was informed by the demand for cloud services and the market's potential. Still, the company is looking to launch in more markets within the continent as demand for its products soars. Its early adopters include large enterprise companies, and e-commerce firms like South Africa's TakeAlot and Kenya's Twiga. According to research by AlphaBeta Economics, commissioned by Google Cloud, the South Africa cloud region will contribute over $2.1 billion to South Africa's GDP and support the creation of more than 40,000 jobs by 2030. Google Cloud, Azure by Microsoft and AWS are the three biggest public cloud storage players in the world, according to data from Gartner, but it's unclear why, until now, Google has been absent in Africa. "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.
"What we're doing here is giving customers and partners a choice on where they'd like to store their data and where they'd like to consume cloud services, especially in the context of data sovereignty. This allows customers to then store the data in the country should they choose to do so... I guess for me the most important element is that it gives customers the element of choice."
No brainer? (Score:1)
This feels like an obvious choice.. where else would they put it.. The Democratic Republic of Congo? Rwanda? Libya?
Re: No brainer? (Score:1)
Zimbabwe, of course. They can power the data centers by burning the local currency at tiny fractions of a penny on the dollar compared to purchasing electricity, or fuel, at market rate.
Re: (Score:2)
Ethiopia would have been another obvious choice, but perhaps they already have something a short hop away on the peninsula.
will need get load shredded? (Score:2)
will need get load shredded?
Seriously??? (Score:2, Funny)
I would have gone with Congo or Sudan.
Functioning democracy (sorta) (Score:2)
SA is one of the few functioning (if you hold your nose) democracies in Africa that has 2 nickels to rub together. Where else would you put it?
Re: Functioning democracy (sorta) (Score:2)
Why not Zimbabwe? (Score:2)
Then they could have said that they invested trillions of Zimbabwe dollar into a new local datacenter to look good while they just bought some shabby shed for 500 USD.
Power supply? (Score:2)
I'm interested to know how Google plan to reliably power data centres, in a country which has a complex and frequently inaccurate load shedding schedule. ... or do they grease the palms of governance to ensure load shedding never impacts their operations?
Clearly a lot of solar and a lot of backup generators
Either way, South Africa's power grid is in a dire state.
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder how much power they would need and if it would make sense to have their own power station/s - perhaps running on something cheaper than LPG or diesel - or a huge solar installation? The latter might be a bit of a bugger inside the cities due to the premium on space.
On the other hand, there are quite a few data centres (AWS, mobile operators, banks) operating in Gauteng and Cape Town (e.g. Standard Bank's for the whole of Africa at Midrand) so one would assume there are ways to solve the problem (that work around Eskom).
Might be interesting to talk to a few of my engineer friends at the next braai to see what some of these have come up with that is still deemed profitable.
I can only guess that already, some businesses must be given preferential treatment when it comes to access to the grid.
That Eskom would sooner cut of all the power to a poor suburb, that disconnect the power to a data centre from the likes of AWS, Google or banks etc.
To some degree, that makes sense - after all, the internet now is totally considered critical infrastructure, as without it, commerce ends.
It would however, be an insult, if thousands of people had their power cut off, so AWS can have another
Re: (Score:2)
They could ask NTT Dimension Data. They seem to have been doing fine for the past couple decades on the continent.
Sahara... (Score:3)