News

Microsoft Expands Its Cloud Footprint into Africa

Microsoft is significantly extending the reach of its cloud-based services by building new datacenters in South Africa, the company announced recently.

The plans include providing Dynamics 365, Azure and Office 365 services from "datacenters located in Johannesburg and Cape Town" beginning sometime next year, according to an announcement last week by Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise Group.

The services will be "enterprise grade," and Microsoft also plans to offer "data residency." The data residency qualification refers to legal requirements by some governments that data be stored within a given country or region. It's a requirement across European Union countries, for instance.

The buildout in South Africa will bolster Microsoft's overall infrastructure to "40 cloud regions around the world," according to the announcement. Microsoft claimed that its region count is "more than any other cloud provider."

Microsoft's Azure service regions can be seen at this page, which also shows the proposed datacenters in "South Africa North" and "South Africa West." Microsoft's Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online regions are shown at this page, although the company won't disclose precise locations.

Microsoft claimed in another announcement that it is already providing some cloud services in Africa: "Across Africa, Microsoft has brought 728,000 small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs) online to help them transform and modernize their businesses, and over 500,000 are now utilizing Microsoft cloud services, with 17,000 using the 4Afrika hub to promote and grow their businesses."

The new buildout in South Africa is expected to open new opportunities for Microsoft's partners, too. Microsoft currently has "17,000 regional partners and customers alike" in Africa, according to the announcement.

All told, Microsoft is claiming to provide services to "over a billion customers and 20 million businesses around the globe."

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

Featured

  • Closeup of the new Copilot keyboard key

    Microsoft Updates Copilot To Add Context-Sensitive Agents to Teams, SharePoint

    Microsoft has rolled out a new public preview for collaborative "always on" agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing enhanced, context-aware tools into Teams channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Planner workstreams and Viva Engage communities.

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.

  • Report: Security Initiatives Can't Keep Pace with Cloud, AI Boom

    The increasingly fast adoption of hybrid, multicloud, and AI systems is easily outgrowing existing security measures, according to a recent global survey by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and exposure management firm Tenable.

  • World Map Image

    Microsoft Taps Nebius in $17B AI Infrastructure Deal To Alleviate Cloud Strain

    Microsoft has signed a five-year, $17.4 billion agreement with Amsterdam-based Nebius Group to expand its AI computing capabilities through third-party GPU infrastructure.