Alibaba Cloud Region To Launch In South Africa Via Telkom’s BCX

(CTN News) – Next month, BCX, a South African IT firm, will launch an Alibaba cloud region.

ITWeb reported last week that BCX, a Telkom company, would be opening Alibaba’s first ‘African local public cloud data center’ in South Africa in October.

As reported by ITWeb last week, BCX, a Telkom company, will be Alibaba’s first ‘African local public cloud data center’ in October.

BCX, a systems integrator, announced a partnership with Alibaba in October 2022. Both parties signed an exclusive distribution contract that grants BCX exclusive rights and authority to distribute Alibaba Cloud’s products and services in South Africa.

The local public data center is currently being tested by BCX, according to ITWeb Africa. Currently, the company is preparing to roll out cloud data centers across Africa, beginning with South Africa.

As we mentioned previously, we will be partnering with Alibaba. We are well underway with that process. Rather than creating a normal cloud, we decided to create a local public cloud, which means that the data resides in the country to ensure data sovereignty and security. In addition, we will be able to charge in local currency,” stated BCX CEO Jonas Bogoshi.

The launch is scheduled for 5 October, when the local public cloud will be available. Additionally, we are working on rolling them out across the continent.

In addition to Cape Town, another launch has been approved for December in Mozambique, as well as expansions in Botswana, Namibia, and Zambia.

According to the timeframes mentioned, it is unclear whether the two companies are planning new builds or leasing space in existing data centers.

According to Bogoshi, the partnership with Alibaba is going well and will change BCX going forward. “We are not only introducing infrastructure services, but also all applications on top of them, including a marketplace for enterprises.”

It is a major milestone for both and BCX, according to Derrick Chikanga, IDC’s research manager for IT services: “This will allow them to effectively compete with other hyperscalers, such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, which have local cloud data centers.” By building local facilities, Alibaba could offer its cloud services closer to customers, decreasing latency and meeting data sovereignty requirements.”

Alibaba operates 29 cloud regions and 88 availability zones globally. Outside of China, it has operations in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific. Currently, there are no regions of the company in Africa.

Ankara, Turkey, was selected as the location for cloud data center earlier this year. Alibaba opened data centers in Bangkok, Thailand; Frankfurt, Germany; and Tokyo, Japan in 2022.

Alibaba intends to spin off and list its cloud unit separately from the main parent company following a change in leadership earlier this year.

BCX, a subsidiary of Telkom Group, is one of Africa’s largest systems integrators. In 2015, Telkom acquired Business Connexion, which was founded in 1996.

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