Summary: Microsoft opened two Azure regions in South Africa: South Africa North based in Johannesburg and South Africa West in Cape Town. Microsoft had planned to open data centres in the country last year. It did not give a reason for the delayed launch but there were some media reports that suggested it may have stemmed from the third party provider being used. This is the only mention of a colocation provider that is out there in the public record. Wholesale provider Teraco has data centres in these two locations and would be a logical choice. Named customers include African financial services firm Nedbank, conservation group Peace Parks Foundation and a local municipality. Office 365 and Dynamics 365 are expected to be available out of the South African facilities in 3Q19 and 4Q19, respectively. AWS is planning to open a Cape Town region in 1H20, while Huawei recently opened its South Africa region.
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