Amazon Web Services (AWS) today announced the general availability of AWS Outposts in South Africa.
In a statement, the US-based company says AWS Outposts delivers fully-managed and configurable compute and storage racks built with AWS-designed hardware that allows organisations to run AWS compute, storage, database and other services on-premises, while connecting to AWS’s array of services in the cloud.
The announcement comes two months after AWS switched on its data centres in SA.
This month, Amazon also began recruiting in SA to fill 3 000 new virtual job vacancies in customer service this year.
According to the company, AWS Outposts brings native AWS services, infrastructure and operating models to virtually any data centre, co-location space, or on-premises facility.
With AWS Outposts, it notes, organisations can use the same AWS APIs, control plane, tools and hardware on-premises as in the AWS cloud to deliver a consistent hybrid experience.
It points out that organisations in SA that have workloads that require low latency, data processing, or data storage on-premises can benefit from AWS Outposts.
These include applications that may need to generate near-real-time responses, communicate with other on-premises systems, or control on-site equipment, such as factory floor equipment, health management systems and retail point of sale systems.
Customers can also use AWS Outposts to securely store and process customer data in SA, which is important for organisations in highly regulated industries with data sovereignty requirements, says AWS.
Prabashni Naidoo, director at Amazon Web Services SA, says: “We are excited to bring AWS Outposts to South Africa.
“Since the launch of the AWS Africa Region in April, customers have been expanding their use of AWS services, and have asked us for a consistent way to develop and manage their applications both on-premises and in the cloud. With AWS Outposts, customers can enjoy a truly consistent cloud environment using native AWS services to operate IT environments across their on-premises locations and the cloud.”
The company explains that with AWS Outposts, customers in South Africa can work with the AWS Partner Network to leverage their deep experience helping businesses move applications to AWS through all aspects of complex migration projects.
These can include initial discovery and assessment, planning, migration and operations, as well as cloud strategy and technology advisory services to migrate and run workloads on AWS Outposts, it adds.
Early adopters of AWS Outposts include Sentech, the national signal distributor, and Vodacom Business, AWS says.
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