Making Cloud Pay
Cloud may well come bundled with statistics and services that make the business swoon, but it needs to deliver on its promises.
Although there are instances where it makes sense to take a datacentre green, this needs to be balanced against how much it will cost, as renewable energy isn’t exactly cheap. Globally, datacentres are on the rise, and South Africa is no exception. However, given the coun – try’s dubious power situation – and the long-term benefits – going green may just pay off. In May, Microsoft announced it will, for the first time, deliver its cloud suite from datacentres lo – cated in Africa.
Its offerings, including Microsoft Azure, Office 365, and Dynamics 365, will be available from datacentres located in Johannes – burg and Cape Town, with initial availability antici – pated in 2018. Ravi Bhat, Cloud and Enterprise Business Group lead at Microsoft South Africa, says, as the world increasingly races to a future based on cloud computing, a host of new and important public issues are emerging, which includes the energy and sustainability practices of the data – centres that power the cloud.
