Oracle opens data centre in South Africa

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Oracle opens data centre in South Africa

STOCKHOLM JOHANNESBURG, Jan 19, Reuters -- Oracle ORCL.N opened a data centre in South Africa on Wednesday to provide local cloud services across Africa for the first time, joining Microsoft and Amazon in setting up facilities in the southernmost country on the continent.

Africa will be the 37th cloud region of the U.S. company, an area that allows customers to get faster access from a local data centre, in this case in Johannesburg.

Oracle is about to open 44 cloud regions this year as it plans to catch up with cloud computing rivals such as Microsoft MSFT.O Amazon and Google GOOGL.O While Oracle has no plans for more data centers in Africa this year, more could come as the company explores areas such as West Africa, Cherian Varghese, regional managing director for Middle East and Africa, told Reuters.

With an increase in demand for faster computing from African banks and telecom firms, Microsoft has launched data centers in South Africa, followed by Amazon and Huawei HWT.UL, which has 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 has challenges with infrastructure, such as high power prices and frequent power cuts, which means additional costs have to be set aside for back-up power.

Smaller cloud operators are trying to grab a piece of the fast-expanding market for data localisation.

U.S. based Digital Realty DLR.N is buying a majority stake in a Johannesburg-based date centre operator for $3.5 billion, while Vantage Data Centres plans to invest up to a billion dollars to set up a data centre in South Africa.