Projects & Agreements
Microsoft to Deliver
Microsoft Cloud
from Data centres
in Africa to Enable
Greater Innovation,
Entrepreneurship
and Economic
Growth
Microsoft has revealed plans to deliver
the complete, intelligent Microsoft
Cloud for the first time from data centres
located in Africa. This new investment
is a major milestone in recognition of
the enormous opportunity for digital
transformation in Africa.
Expanding on existing investments,
Microsoft will deliver cloud services,
including Microsoft Azure, Office 365,
and Dynamics 365, from data centres
located in Johannesburg and Cape Town,
South Africa with initial availability
anticipated in 2018. The new cloud
regions will offer enterprise-grade
reliability and performance combined
with data residency to help enable the
tremendous opportunity for economic
growth, and increase access to cloud and
internet services for organisations and
people across the African continent.
Currently many companies in
Africa rely on cloud services delivered
from outside of the continent. The
combination of Microsoft’s global cloud
infrastructure with the new regions
in Africa will connect businesses with
opportunity across the globe, help
accelerate new investments, and
improve access to cloud and internet
services for people and organisations
from Cairo to Cape Town.
This announcement expands on
ongoing investments in Africa, where
organisations are using currently
available cloud and mobile services
as a platform for innovation in health
care, agriculture, education, and
entrepreneurship.
For further information visit:
www.microsoft.com
40 | August 2017
Aegis Data, vScaler and GCX unveil three-
pronged partnership to
provide complete HPC proposition
Aegis Data has announced a strategic alignment with cloud infrastructure and
services provider vScaler to host its cloud environment within its data centre. The
partnership is further supported by Global Cloud Xchange (GCX), a subsidiary of
Reliance Communications (RCOM), which will enable direct access to vScaler’s cloud
services platform via GCX’s Cloud X Fusion, delivering next-generation application-
specific cloud services to consumers and enterprises over the GCX Global Network.
As part of this strategic partnership, Aegis will provide
vScaler with the necessary power and infrastructure
requirements that will allow both organisations to
capture the increasing demand for scalable HPC-on-
demand services from enterprises in the region.
Industry findings have projected that the HPC
market is expected to grow up to USD 36.62 billion
by 2020, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)
of 5.45 per cent. vScaler’s proposition supports this
demand via a dedicated, application-specific HPC cloud
platform, one that allows users to provision full HPC-
on-demand clusters, Big Data analytics and accelerated
GPU compute. This will now be enhanced through the
relationship with Aegis Data.
For further information: www.aegisdata.net
Aruba announces the largest data
centre campus in Italy
Aruba has announced the pre-opening of one of the largest data centre
campuses in Italy, in Ponte San Pietro (Bergamo). The Global Cloud Data Centre
was designed to meet the colocation and IT infrastructure management needs
of companies to represent one of the largest Cloud hubs.
The services available are aimed at large companies, public administration, IT
operators and SMEs, authorities, systems integrators, telecoms companies and any
businesses keen to work with the Italian market and expand their customer base.
The Global Cloud Data Centre is connected to the main national and
international carriers and boasts its own dark fibre infrastructure offering a dual path
to the Caldera Business Park in Milan, with virtually unlimited transmission capacity.
A stand-out aspect of the campus is its unique specifications, offering
maximum energy efficiency. Aruba already uses energy that comes exclusively
from certified renewable sources for its data centres. In the new area, energy
will be supplied via multiple connections to external utilities, a hydroelectric
plant and a photovoltaic system, both belonging to Aruba.
As well as this, an incredibly efficient geothermal cooling system guarantees
optimum results with much lower energy consumption. In addition, all the
systems have been designed and built to meet and exceed the highest levels of
resilience set out by ANSI/TIA 942-A Rating 4 (formerly Tier 4).
For further information visit: www.aruba.it