When Microsoft announced building its own data centres in South Africa – its first in Africa – it meant the beginning of a new chapter for local businesses embracing digital transformation and transitioning to cloud services.
The two Microsoft data centres, officially launched in Johannesburg and Cape Town in March 2019, promised faster access to Microsoft’s data global network, better connectivity to the Azure hyper-scale platform, and the enablement of local cloud services.
South African enterprises can host their data locally, in their own data centre network, and use the scalable local infrastructure to expand globally. Here are three benefits of keeping your data locally in the cloud, all thanks to Microsoft’s data centres in South Africa.
Reduce Downtime and Latency Issues
The main advantage of having your enterprise data hosted within South African borders is the reduced downtime and latency that often happens when network connectivity gets interrupted. This means a guaranteed network uptime (which Microsoft swears at 99,9%).
Until the launch of these data centres, most enterprises had to rely on the closest hyper-scale data centre to host data in Ireland, Europe, and connectivity was maintained through the undersea cable connections.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central enables customers to upgrade their entry-level accounting software and legacy ERP systems with a single, comprehensive solution to manage finances, operations, sales and customer service. It is a cloud-based, all-in-one business management solution that helps organisations streamline business processes, improve customer interactions and enable growth.
Secure Access to Data Cloud Services
Enterprises migrating to the cloud have immediate access to the latest technology and versions of software and applications, and leverage cloud services to optimise operations.
The new local data centres bring businesses closer to the highly scalable, secure data cloud services used by million businesses globally, including Microsoft Azure, Office 365, and the Dynamics 365 products suite.
Your Microsoft CSP – Cloud Solution Provider – can now provide your business with access to all these applications hosted in the cloud, which means any business of any size can implement affordable cloud solutions and rely on enough capacity to store an increasing amount of local data.
Furthermore, data security, which remains a major challenge for many local enterprises, will become a thing of the past due to Microsoft’s guarantee security, uptime and data privacy regulations contained in its ecosystem.
Take advantage of accessible, fast and flexible cloud services within the new Microsoft data centre network.
