South Africa's leading cloud services

South African firms may pick from five key cloud services to make their operations more flexible, efficient, and to unleash strategic value.

If you’ve used the Internet in the last several years, you’ve probably visited a website or utilised an app that uses a cloud service.

The specifics of how a cloud computing infrastructure works might be intimidating.

However, as defined by Amazon Web Services (AWS), cloud computing is the on-demand supply of IT resources through the Internet.

There are various advantages to adopting cloud services for your organisation rather than relying entirely on your own equipment.

One of the world’s biggest cloud services providers — Google Cloud — said there are six primary benefits to using cloud computing:

1. Faster time to market

Companies can easily and quickly spin up apps and systems for testing new ideas or designs and retire them if they don’t deliver the required outcome.

2. Scalability and flexibility

Businesses can scale their computing power and storage as needed without investing in new physical architecture.

3. Cost savings

You only pay for the resources you use, avoiding the risk of costly overbuilds or overprovisioning in your own data centre space.

4. Better collaboration

Your data is accessible from basically anywhere on the globe, at least where the Internet is available. This allows people to work or collaborate from wherever they may be.

5. Advanced security

Reputed cloud services offer a range of security features, automatic maintenance, and centralised management. Top-notch providers also employ security experts to ensure their protection remains up to date.

6. Data loss prevention

Backup and disaster recovery features ensure that your business can restore systems and data in the event of a system failure or cyberattack.

Locally based cloud services

Although it is technically feasible to use a cloud service without a local presence, companies with local data centre infrastructure will deliver superior performance owing to lower latency.

Businesses should also be mindful of specific rules in South Africa’s Protection of Private Information Act (POPIA) that regulate the movement of personal data from South Africans outside the nation.

Section 72 of the act prohibits the transmission of data subjects’ personal information to third parties outside of South Africa unless certain safeguards are in place.

Although these procedures might be difficult to traverse, credible cloud services must guarantee that they adhere to the laws of the countries in which they operate.

As a result, utilising a firm with a local presence may help your company avoid breaking data-sharing rules while processing customer or employee information online.

The five largest cloud service providers in South Africa are listed below, with either a local presence or plans to open a South African area shortly.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

In April 2020, AWS will open its first African region in Cape Town. The facility has three data centre clusters, often known as availability zones.

The world’s largest cloud service provider has strong roots in South Africa, having established a development centre in Cape Town in 2004.

The team established Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), the initial AWS cloud service, under the leadership of software engineer Chris Pinkham and lead developer Christopher Brown.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) 

Most Internet users will have used a service powered by GCP in the last several years, since it now powers prominent apps such as Google Search, YouTube, Google Drive, and YouTube.

Google announced in October 2022 that it will add a South African region to GCP, its first presence in Africa.

The region will be held in Johannesburg and will include three zones. Its specific release date has yet to be determined.

 Huawei Cloud

Huawei Cloud provides three availability zones from its own data centres in Johannesburg, which went live in March 2019.

According to the firm, this facility meets Tier 3+ criteria. Huawei’s own high-performance CPUs and network gear are used.

 Oracle Cloud

Oracle launched its Johannesburg area in January 2022, as one of eight new sites as part of an ambitious expansion strategy.

Oracle EMEA executive vice president Richard Smith noted at the time that the new area provided a “next-generation” cloud that could run any application quicker and more securely for less money.

Customers may use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to shift IT workloads and data platforms to the cloud or to construct cloud-native applications.

Microsoft Azure

In March 2019, Microsoft opened its first enterprise-grade data centres in South Africa, in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

In October 2021, it will add three Azure availability zones to its Johannesburg site.

Azure serves as the foundation for all of Microsoft’s cloud-based services, including the popular Microsoft 365 productivity suite.