Microsoft announced the general availability of Microsoft Azure from its new cloud regions in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa as the company open its door for its first enterprise-grade datacenters in Africa. The company claimed that it is the latest example of their ongoing investments in the continent to enable digital transformation and advance technologies such as AI, cloud, and edge computing across Africa.
Microsoft has created 54 regions around the world, and now company’s global cloud infrastructure will connect the new regions in South Africa for greater business opportunity, as well as accelerate new investments and improve access to cloud and Internet services across Africa.
In a blog post, Tom Keane. Corporate Vice President, Azure Global, Microsoft Azure said “We’ve expanded our network footprint to reach Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa and will be expanding to Angola. Microsoft is bringing the global cloud closer to home for African organizations and citizens through our trans-Arabian paths between India and Europe, as well as our trans-Atlantic systems including Marea, the highest-capacity cable to ever cross the Atlantic.”
Keane furthe stated, Azure is the first of Microsoft’s intelligent cloud services to be delivered from the new datacenters in South Africa. Office 365, Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity solution, is anticipated to be available by the third quarter of calendar year 2019, and Dynamics 365, the next generation of intelligent business applications, is anticipated for the fourth quarter.
