Oracle Commissions its First Data Centre in Africa

Oracle has commissioned a data centre in South Africa to provide local cloud services across Africa. The move marks Oracle’s 37^th cloud region.

The computer technology corporation has plans to open 44 cloud regions this year as it moves to close the gap with cloud computing rivals like Microsoft 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 organisations 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.

West Africa, Cherian Varghese, regional managing director for the Middle East and Africa, while speaking with Reuters also disclosed that the company will not be establishing more data centers in Africa this year but more could come next year as the company looks to explore West Africa.

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 centres in the country, mostly near Cape Town and Johannesburg.

South Africa, however, is plagued with power challenges ranging from high prices to intermittent supply, which will require these companies to more on backup power.

Interestingly, there are smaller cloud operators are also trying to grab a piece of the fast-expanding market for data localisation.

U.S.-based Digital Realty is buying a majority stake in a Johannesburg-based data centre 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 centre in South Africa.