Amazon Web Services has announced that it will open data centers in South Africa in the first half of 2020. The firm said that the AWS Africa (Cape Town) Region hardware will enable three Availability Zones. The firm already has a total of 55 Availability Zones around the world at the moment and plans to add 12 more in coming months, those in Cape Town will further add to this.
Discussing the development, Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services, said:
“Having built the original version of Amazon EC2 in our Cape Town development center 14 years ago, and with thousands of African companies using AWS for years, we’ve been able to witness first-hand the technical talent and potential in Africa. Technology has the opportunity to transform lives and economies across Africa and we’re excited about AWS and the Cloud being a meaningful part of that transformation.”
With the expansion, organizations will be able to offer their customers in Sub-Saharan Africa lower latency when using their services. In addition, businesses on AWS will be able to take advantage of AI, Machine Learning, IoT, mobile services, and more to enhance their offerings. All users’ data will be subject to South African data protection laws and Amazon Web Services confirmed that their service is in compliance with the upcoming Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).
In addition to offering businesses better infrastructure, AWS is also helping South Africa in other ways. Amazon is helping several NGOs that teach programming including Code4CT, GirlCode, and DjangoGirls. AWS also runs AWS Activate to help startups get off the ground as well as offering them coaching, mentorship, and technical support.
If you want to be prepared for the arrival of AWS Africa (Cape Town) Region, be sure to visit AWS to register for an account.
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