With hyperscalers now in the country and the likes of AWS expanding across the continent, there are hopes that South Africa can position itself as the data centre hub of the continent. This emerged at webinar on Cloud Technologies as an enabler for Digital Transformation, hosted by AWS as part of a new series of events focused on Digital Transformation in Government. You can still register here.
Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, the Minister for Communications and Digital Technologies told the webinar: “Digital inclusion is our collective responsibility as the public and private sector. A recent ITU study estimated the need of over $428 billion in investments to eradicate the digital divide by 2030. Similarly, Africa will need $100 billion of investment to close the digital gap. Our department, and government, continue their open door policy and are ready to work with the private sector in addressing the digital divide challenges.”
She said: “The Department has made great advancements in finalising its data and cloud policy, which will provide much-needed guidance to the industry and to Amazon’s ambitions locally on the future regulation of data centres in South Africa.”
She emphasized the government’s commitment to leveraging technologies like cloud computing to improve how it delivers services, adding: "In the process, we will ensure the protection of people’s personal information and data.”
As government, we will continue to create an enabling environment and encourage more Tier IV hyperscale data centres to be built on our shores.
Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, minister of communications and digital technologies.
Pointing to a data driven government, Ndabeni-Abrahams said: “We accept that data centres, cloud, big data and deep learning form the foundations of the 4IR. Without cloud and data centres, there is no 4IR. Therefore discussions about clean energy will be key in this new environment of data centres and cloud. We accept that the public sector has been slow and cautious in adopting new technologies to help streamline operations and drive efficiency, but the pandemic demonstrated the need to embrace cloud swiftly.”
She noted that the South African cloud services market grew by 43% in 2019, 42% in 2020, and is forecasted to grow at a minimum rate of 31% per annum for the next five years, bringing a R33 billion revenue per annum. "Public cloud expenditure is expected to grow by 61% in 2021, and our department, DBSA, SITA and State Security Agencies and other partners are working at resolving all remaining cloud adoption challenges in the public sector," she said.
She noted that some challenges had yet to be addressed – such as lack of skilled cloud resources and cyber threats and risks to confidentiality and the privacy of users.
“Professionals in the field must continue to work tirelessly so that these risks can be mitigated,” she said.
"As government, we will continue to create an enabling environment and encourage more Tier IV hyperscale data centres to be built on our shores. South Africa is currently home to most hyperscale data centres on the continent, demonstrating growing demand in all segments. Our strategic location opens the opportunity to position the country as a data centre hub on the continent.”
On the question of what keeps her awake at night, the Minister said: “The unconnected people of South Africa have to be connected; we must fast track digital migration to free up spectrum, and release that spectrum on time. We must also create an enabling environment for digital transformation through legislation, and we need to build stronger, meaningful and more effective partnerships.”
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