Cyber protection company Acronis today announced the opening of its new data centre in Johannesburg.
The global firm is headquartered in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. It develops on-premises and cloud software for backup, disaster recovery, secure file sync and share, and data access.
Billed by the company as “SA’s first cyber cloud data centre”, the new facility seeks to support South African service providers and vendors to meet cyber security requirements, regulatory compliance, data sovereignty and infrastructure performance requirements, as cyber criminals intensify their attacks on critical business infrastructure.
It is one of the 111 new data centres being deployed by the company across the globe, with the aim of giving local service providers access to cyber protection solutions upon which they can build new services.
The company is in the process of launching a second data centre in Africa, in Nigeria.
During today’s launch of the data centre, Peter French, regional GM of Acronis Middle East and Africa, said it is part of the Acronis global/local initiative. This effort includes global management for all data centres and geographic redundancy, as the company continues to extend local disaster recovery sites across the globe.
“A local presence is a necessity for modern cloud businesses and we are proud to establish the Acronis Cyber Cloud Data Centre in South Africa.
“Now managed service providers can safeguard clients’ data locally and know they are backed by a global partner who is on standby 24/7/365 to address any issues, while delivering faster access, constant data availability and data sovereignty to their clients,” explained French.
The global network of Acronis Cyber Cloud Data Centres already includes more than 40 existing data centres. The company has cloud data centres in various parts of the globe, including Europe, Asia and the US, with plans to continue this momentum, he added.
Not in competition
The growth in Africa’s cloud sector is leading to more international players choosing to invest in the market.
IDC estimates public cloud services adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa will accelerate at a compound annual growth rate of 25% year-on-year between 2020 and 2025.
Since 2019, SA has seen an influx of tech companies investing in local data centres, including hyperscalers like Microsoft and Amazon, as well as the likes of Teraco, Dimension Data and Huawei, among others.
However, French tells ITWeb that Acronis is “not in it for the competition”, but rather wants to collaborate with both the managed service providers and hyperscalers.
“As a vendor, we are not out to compete directly with any of the hyperscalers. We are agnostic to the companies we protect or integrate with, and in turn we co-exist with Amazon Web Services, Azure and others.
“Our aim is to protect the infrastructure they provide to clients by providing local service providers with a location within the country where they can store business-critical data for their clients,” he stated.
Oliver Niemandt, GM of IT vendor and Acronis partner Tarsus On Demand, noted: “It has become increasingly important for South African businesses to put measures in place to ensure they avoid being prime targets of cyber attacks.
“Organisations of all sizes need to ensure they are compliant and that their clients’ information remains secured, especially after the Protection of Personal Information Act came into effect on 1 July 2021.
“We are excited that Acronis is investing in a new data centre in South Africa for more simplified and secured business operations. We strongly believe this is exactly what our partner ecosystem needs and the move will accelerate digital transformation among South African businesses.”
Denzil Moorcroft, sales director, channel partners at 4Sight Dynamics Africa, another Acronis partner, said: “As one of the fastest-growing Acronis distribution partners in one of the most rapidly-growing regions – South Africa, Africa, Europe and the Middle East − we are excited about Acronis’s local approach to cyber protection, as it is important for organisations to meet localisation requirements.
“Our partners and their customers can look forward to locally-hosted cyber protection solutions, which will give them peace of mind and security, from a global partner like Acronis.”
Share