South African cloud providers are eagerly waiting to plug into Google’s Equiano submarine internet cable, with plans to accelerate their cloud offerings and develop solutions that will thrust SA into Society 5.0.
This was the sentiment shared by panellists at the hybrid Africa Tech Week 2022 event, hosted by Sentech this week.
Participating in a panel discussion titled “Building Cloud Capabilities”, tech industry executives agreed the new Google Equiano cable linking Africa and Europe will dramatically improve connectivity and latency, and revolutionise cloud services for organisations across the African continent.
Announced in 2019, the subsea cable is expected to be a massive job creation machine, driven by the expansion of the region’s digital economy and peripheral sectors.
The cable, which landed at Melkbosstrand, north of Cape Town on 8 August, starts in Western Europe and runs along the West Coast of Africa, between Portugal and SA, with branching units along the way that can be used to extend connectivity to additional African countries.
The panellists, representing Amazon Web Services (AWS), Sentech and HPE, noted the project is expected to propel cloud services by speeding up performance for cloud customers, supporting critical cloud infrastructure and speeding the transfer of data in the cloud.
Nomahlubi Ogoh, head of department: IT at Sentech, noted the subsea cable can help improve infrastructural development in SA, and boost affordability and increase uptake of connectivity.
“This means companies could be connected anywhere and anytime, and this will enable a Society 5.0 human-centric approach to solutions, through good-quality connectivity – and this will contribute to the digital economy and enable us to grow as a country,” she stated.
On a continent considered the most under-served region in the world – with a large number of citizens who have been left out of the digital economy – the Equiano cable is expected to deliver high-speed broadband, at 144-terabits per second. This is around 20 times the amount of the previous cable that served the region, according to a report commissioned by Google.
The report also notes Equiano will enable data prices to drop by between 16% and 21% in SA, Namibia and Nigeria – countries where high data costs have hindered wide-scale internet adoption.
Jean-Pierre Roux, AWS security consultant, explained: “Any great investment into Africa is a good thing. But the fact that this will enable companies to access quality connectivity and bridge the digital divide across the continent is always a great thing.
“Companies will be able to leverage this type of global investment to advance access to technology and reduce the cost of connectivity, which is very important for digital inclusion.”
According to Roux, cloud adoption has accelerated in SA over the past few years, as more firms that need high amounts of computing power are able to create innovative services without having to host infrastructure on-site.
The increasing number of managed service providers, he added, plays a critical role in enabling government and private sector customers to accelerate their cloud adoption journey.
Sandile Dube, MD of HPE in SA, pointed out: “This project is a great thing for our society and it's a good thing for South Africa, because it means companies will be able to provide cloud services at scale. Cloud, particularly for small businesses, is all about scalability, so utilising and accessing vital services and scaling in a secure environment is important.”
According to Google, Equiano will be the first subsea cable to incorporate optical switching at the fibre-pair level, rather than the traditional approach of wavelength-level switching. This greatly simplifies the allocation of cable capacity, giving Google the flexibility to add and reallocate it in different locations as needed, it explains.
Telkom’s fibre unit, Openserve, has teamed up with Google as a landing partner in SA for the undersea cable. The Telkom subsidiary provides its cable station facility at Melkbosstrand as the SA landing station, and will offer terrestrial services connecting the cable landing to South African carrier-neutral data centres.
As cloud adoption accelerates in SA, Dube highlighted the importance of balancing the need for cloud services with providing adequate security.
“The cloud security issue is a concern from a serenity point of view and organisations have to think about whether they are willing to give their own data to the likes of cloud service providers; so yes, the caution has to be there.
“But the quicker organisations adopt cloud, the better – because there are many types of security architecture and frameworks that are available out there, that form part of the cloud journey.”
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