The rising demand for high-speed computing from both South African businesses and the government has drawn major cloud service providers to the region. Notably, Huawei became the first international company to establish a local 'hyperscale' cloud data center in South Africa in 2019.
According to Jacqueline Shi, president of Huawei Cloud Global Marketing and Sales Service, the company has catered to over 1,000 clients across various sectors, including government, financial services, education, telecommunications, as well as media and e-commerce, during the cloud summit held in Johannesburg.
Shi stated, "Our cloud business in South Africa has grown more than 16 times in the last five years, thanks to robust support from diverse customers."
She further mentioned to reporters that while the total revenue is still relatively modest, this has motivated the company to roll out more cloud solutions to secure a larger portion of the local market.
Market research firm Africa Analysis predicts that the cloud market in South Africa will expand at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 26% from 2023 to 2028, reaching a value of 113 billion rand ($6 billion).
The increasing adoption of artificial intelligence is also contributing to higher spending by corporate clients.
Steven Chen, Chief Executive of Huawei Cloud South Africa, remarked to reporters, "Choosing whether to move to the cloud is no longer a question. The real question is how far to go and how to do it swiftly."
The Chinese technology giant is competing directly with cloud service providers such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet's Google for customers in South Africa, operating three data center locations in Johannesburg.