Google To Establish Cloud Region In South Africa

Google has announced their intention to establish a Google Cloud region in South Africa – its first on the continent. South Africa will be joining Google Cloud’s global network of 35 cloud regions and 106 zones worldwide.

According to a blogspot by Google, the future cloud region in South Africa will bring its cloud services closer to its local customers, enabling them to innovate and securely deliver faster, more reliable experiences to their own customers, helping to accelerate their growth.

According to research by AlphaBeta Economics for Google Cloud, the South African cloud region will contribute more than a cumulative $2.1 billion to the country’s GDP and will support the creation of more than 40,000 jobs by 2030.

Google also announced they are launching voice typing support for nine more African languages (isiNdebele, isiXhosa, Kinyarwanda, Northern Sotho, Swati, Sesotho, Tswana, Tshivenda and Xitsonga) in Gboard, the Google keyboard. Currently, 24 new languages are now supported on Google Translate, including Lingala, which is spoken by more than 45 million people across Central Africa.

To make Maps more useful, the Company said street view imagery in Kenya, South Africa, Senegal and Nigeria has had refresh with nearly 300,000 more kilometres of imagery now helping people virtually explore and navigate neighbourhoods.

It said it is extending the service to Rwanda, meaning that Street View is now available in 11 African countries.