Alphabet Inc. subsidiary, Google is set to build Africa’s first Cloud region in South Africa, delivering on the $1 billion investment commitment made in 2021 by its CEO, Sundar Pichai.
According to The Nation, Google announced the recent development during its second Google for Africa event on Wednesday.
The new Cloud Region will help users, developers, businesses and educational institutions across Africa to move more information and tools online, improve access options for customers and in turn, create jobs.
The new Cloud Region, according to Google will help users, developers, businesses and educational institutions across Africa move information and tools online seamlessly.
Also designed to improve access options for customers and create more jobs, the South African cloud region will contribute more than a cumulative USD 2.1 billion to the country’s GDP.
AlphaBeta Economics confirmed the GDP boost and also stated that the new Cloud Region will support the creation of more than 40,000 jobs by 2030.
Director of Google Cloud Africa, Niral Patel said, “We believe in growing an open and healthy ecosystem of technology solutions to support Africa’s digital transformation goals, which leads to more opportunities for businesses.
“It is part of our company-wide ethos to respect the environment, which is why we operate the cleanest cloud in the industry, supporting sustainable digital transformation,” he added.
“Along with the cloud region, we are expanding our network through the Equiano subsea cable and building Dedicated Cloud Interconnect sites in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Lagos and Nairobi. In doing so, we are building full-scale Cloud capability for Africa.”