The questions Google will answer about its South African cloud region — and those it won’t

Google has shed some light on its data centre infrastructure in Johannesburg, saying that its capacity is collocated with South African data centre operators and offers three forms of redundancy.

This is according to Google’s director for strategic missions and partnerships, Clayton Naidoo, speaking during a press briefing at the launch of the Google Cloud environment on Wednesday.

Naidoo gave a nod to South African data centre providers it partnered with to collocate its capacity.

Collocation is when a customer rents space in a data centre to house its servers and hardware. In this case, that customer happens to be a large cloud player like Google.

“The data centre capacity is collocated in Johannesburg in a facility with robust infrastructure,” Naidoo said. “However, we can’t disclose the partnership.”

Naidoo said they couldn’t disclose details for security reasons. For example, he said they also host other services in that particular data centre in addition to Google Cloud services.

In addition to declining to answer questions about whether they are using Teraco, Africa Data Centres, NTT Data, or another collocation provider for the Google Cloud region in Johannesburg, the search giant also avoided questions about how much it cost.

Instead, the president of Google EMEA, Tara Brady, pointed to Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s 2021 announcement that the search giant would invest $1 billion (R18 billion) in Africa over the next five years.

Pichai said this investment would support a range of initiatives, from improved connectivity to investment in startups, to boosting Africa’s digital transformation.

Although Google would not comment on its collocation partner or the value of its data centre investment in South Africa, Naidoo did address questions about the resilience of its local cloud architecture.

“We have three forms of redundancy in Johannesburg, and all of them are connected to our data centre infrastructure,” Naidoo said.

Naidoo said that the Johannesburg cloud region would serve the Southern African Development Community, East Africa, and West Central Africa.

He explained that Google is also working on business cases to overcome data sovereignty issues at the national level, which ultimately influence whether it can roll out data centres in neighbouring countries.

Data sovereignty is the concept that data collected in a country are subject to the laws governing data in that nation.

However, Naidoo said Google’s investments in subsea cables, such as Equiano, allow the data centre region to serve other parts of Africa.

South Africa’s minister of communication, Solly Malatsi, commented on the infrastructure investment, saying that it indicates trust and support for the country’s vision of a digital future.

“I extend our sincere appreciation to Google for this investment in our country’s digital future. It signals trust in our economy and supports our ambition to position South Africa as the tech heart of Africa,” Malatsi said.

“Google’s investment strengthens our digital backbone, enhancing connectivity, data security, and computational power. This infrastructure enables businesses, entrepreneurs, and public institutions to operate more efficiently and scale their innovations globally.”