American multinational computer technology corporation, Oracle, has commissioned a data center in South Africa to provide local cloud services across Africa. The move marks Oracle’s 37th cloud region.
Oracle is racing to open at least 44 cloud regions this year as it plans to catch up with cloud computing rivals such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.
“The fourth industrial revolution, which is powered by cloud-led technologies, has significantly accelerated in South Africa and the wider African continent,” Richard Smith, executive vice president, EMEA, Oracle, said.
“In recent months, cloud technologies have played a vital role in helping African public and private sector organizations ensure business continuity, deliver essential services, and meet evolving customer expectations. The Oracle Johannesburg region offers a next-generation cloud to run any application faster and more securely for less, helping businesses build resilience, agility and achieve improved ROI.”
There has been a surge in demand for faster and more reliable computing from African banks and telecoms which has led to big cloud companies coming in to service the needs. Microsoft after setting the pace to launch data centers in South Africa was followed by Amazon and Huawei.
Though Oracle has no plans for more data centers in Africa this year, more could come next year as the company explores areas such as West Africa, Cherian Varghese, regional managing director for the Middle East and Africa, told Reuters.
According to Reuters, fast connectivity provided by a submarine communication cable and being Africa’s most developed economy have made South Africa a key location for cloud operators, with over 50 data centers in the country, mostly near Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Some smaller cloud operators like U.S.-based Digital Realty are also trying to grab a piece of the fast-expanding market for data localization recently buying a majority stake in a Johannesburg-based data center operator for $3.5 billion, while Vantage Data Centres has also announced plans to invest up to a billion dollars to set up a data center in South Africa.
