In what can be considered a significant move towards boosting the use of cloud technology , South Africa Microsoft has unveiled the continent’s first data centre, showcasing new facilities in Cape Town and Johannesburg for customers wanting to access the company’s Azure cloud service.
This would allow local businesses benefit from Microsoft’s cloud for building apps and services.
“The combination of Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure with the new regions in Africa will create greater economic opportunity for organisations in Africa, accelerate new global investment, and improve access to cloud and internet services,” said Yousef Khalidi, corporate vice president of Azure Networking at Microsoft.
Microsoft also revealed it is working alongside the African Development Bank to launch its Coding for Employment initiative, as part of Microsoft’s Imagine Academies work, which it hopes will create 25 million jobs in the area.
“We’re working with partners to accelerate cloud readiness and adoption in Africa, ensuring enterprises can deliver services to market faster, businesses can make more data-driven decisions, and governments can better connect with citizens,” Ibrahim Youssry, general manager, North, West, East, Central Africa, Levant & Pakistan, Microsoft said.
“As we connect more businesses to Azure, we’re seeing heightened innovation in the cloud and start-ups expanding their services to new markets. The combination of Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure with the new regions in Africa will now connect businesses with even more opportunity and customers across the globe.”