Microsoft expands Cloud Services with two new Datacenters in Africa, Cape Town and Johannesburg

May 19, 2017

Microsoft has shared on it’s plans to deliver the Microsoft Cloud from datacenters in Africa. This is BIG right? Increasing it’s Cloud Regions, Africa will have it’s first Microsoft Cloud datacenters situated in South Africa.

datacenters

Microsoft’s investments in Africa is quickly growing. It’s like Microsoft can see something happening on the continent and is getting ready for it. Technological innovations growing around African cities are on the rise. The increase in Hubs in Nairobi, Accra, Lagos, Cape Town, Kigali to mention a few can attest to this. We saw Microsoft Launch a major event earlier this year on the continent with NexTech Africa. This is only the beginning, we’ve also seen Microsoft pilot it’s Windows Insiders 4 Good initiative in Lagos and soon the East Africa Fellowships.

“With cloud services ranging from intelligent collaboration to predictive analytics, the Microsoft Cloud delivered from Africa will enable developers to build new and innovative apps, customers to transform their businesses, and governments to better serve the needs of their citizens.” – Scott Guthrie

Microsoft’s cloud regions will in addition to new data centers to be located in Cape Town and Johannesburg increase to 40 globally. These datacenters will deliver same Microsoft cloud services including Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics and Azure. The datacenters are said to be available sometime in 2018.

Watch Microsoft’s Managing Director for South Africa, Zoaib Hoosen talk about the announcement.

Microsoft’s Executive Vice President Cloud and Enterprise Group, Scott Guthrie, talking about this said;

We’re excited by the growing demand for cloud services in Africa and their ability to be a catalyst for new economic opportunities.
Customers across Africa, including local startups and NGOs, will be able to use the cloud services delivered from these new regions to power innovation and opportunity for Africa and the world.
Few places in the world are as dynamic and diverse as Africa today. In this landscape, we see enormous opportunity for the cloud to accelerate innovation, support people across the continent who are working to transform their businesses, explore new entrepreneurship opportunities and help solve some of the world’s hardest problems. For these reasons, I’m very excited to share our plans to deliver the Microsoft Cloud from datacenters in Africa.
What do you think about this announcement? Hopefully we’ll be there to inform you when the datacenters are up and running.

 

More Info:  Microsoft | Microsoft