IBM Opens First Cloud Data Center in South Africa

Collaboration with Gijima and Vodacom expected to fuel cloud adoption across Africa

JOHANNESBURG, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that it is opening a new IBM Cloud Data Center in Johannesburg, South Africa. The new cloud center is the result of a close collaboration with Gijima and Vodacom and is designed to support cloud adoption and customer demand across the continent.  IBM will provide clients with a complete portfolio of cloud services for running enterprise and as a service workloads.

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The new facility underscores IBM's growing cloud footprint, which now includes 46 cloud data centers across six continents. Today's news also reinforces the joint partnership between SAP and IBM aimed at accelerating a customers' ability to run core business in the cloud.

"We're working to drive cloud adoption that best leverages a customer's existing IT investments," said Hamilton Ratshefola, IBM Country General Manager in South Africa. "Our new Cloud Data Center gives customers a local onramp to IBM Cloud services including moving mission critical SAP workloads to the cloud with ease. It also gives customers the added flexibility of keeping data within country which is a key differentiator for IBM."

The IBM Cloud Data Center will provide enterprise customers in South Africa and Africa with access to IBM's global network of Cloud Data Centers and services expertise. This will enable businesses to run critical applications on the cloud, providing access to a broad array of services for building in-country cloud solutions, while offering faster network speeds to improve performance and reach end users even faster.

"The increase of enterprise cloud computing on the continent is being driven by large enterprise and multinational organisations expanding their presence and IT requirements across Africa," said Vuyani Jarana, Chief Officer of Vodacom Business. "CIO's are looking to gain efficiencies and cut cost by moving more of their IT infrastructure, applications and processes into the Cloud. Vodacom's extensive Fixed and Mobile network infrastructure, Pan African and global footprint and its investment in data center infrastructure provides the ideal platform and environment to deliver cloud services to large and multinational enterprises."

Today's news showcases IBM's global reach and broad portfolio of cloud services capable of supporting very large enterprises like big retailers and financial institutions. Vodacom is committed to delivering enterprise grade cloud solutions and this partnership with IBM delivers on that scale and will position Vodacom Business as a leader in total IT solutions across the continent.

"Gijima as a 100 percent black owned South African company, is proud to be the cloud partner of choice for these unique IBM services," said Eileen Wilton, CEO of Gijima. The partnership with IBM and Vodacom is an extension of Gijima's hybrid cloud strategy and is the culmination of two years of hard work as part of our turnaround strategy. Gijima is the ideal partner for this service as we already have the system and SAP integration skills as part of our existing solutions offering.

Bringing together Vodacom's network and Africa footprint, Gijima's SAP enterprise expertise and IBM's cloud platforms will create a powerhouse in cloud services, resolving data latency and in-country regulatory issues through the protection of data in-country and potentially also offset data networking costs. Gijima and Vodacom will both resell IBM's Cloud Managed Services to the SAP enterprise customer base in the region.

IBM Cloud delivers fast, easy and automated access to public, private and hybrid cloud services to help clients digitally transform. IBM Cloud is a growing collection of services including analytics, mobile, networking, storage, Internet of Things and cognitive computing. With more than 46 global cloud data centers, IBM helps companies securely manage and gain insight into their data no matter where it resides.

This news is the latest investment IBM is making in Africa's future and the development of the continent's economy including IBM's Africa Research labs, a state-of-the-art Innovation Centers as well as the IBM Technical Academy and IBM University Program.

About IBM Cloud:

For more information about IBM Cloud visit: ibm.com/cloud-computing

About Gijima:

Gijima is one of South Africa's leading Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Service companies with 100% unencumbered black ownership and a level 2 Broad Based Black Empowerment rating. Gijima is 100% managed by South Africans, is locally funded and offers application services, infrastructure configuration and implementation and end-to-end managed outsource services through our national footprint, OEM partnerships and our national small, medium and micro enterprise development network.

Our uniqueness lies in the combination of our proudly South African footprint, our proven ability to manage complexity, our track record of delivery across the years and the ability to provide our clients with technology solutions that deliver tangible business benefits. Employing more than 2 000 highly qualified, dedicated and committed employees, Gijima is considered as one of the leaders in the industry remaining well positioned to add value to all our clients, which includes 51 of the top 100 companies listed on the JSE.

About Vodacom:

Vodacom Business was established in 2008 as the enterprise arm of Vodacom Group. It delivers ICT solutions to meet the needs of the public sector, corporates, medium and small enterprises.

Vodacom Business offers solutions that extend from mobile to fixed-line access, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), Voice over IP (VoIP), hosted facilities, cloud computing, storage, backup, security and application solutions.

Vodacom's dedicated bandwidth offerings are fully managed and suitable for branch-to-branch connectivity as well as connecting businesses to our IP service offerings at high speeds with dedicated access to your company and its offices. Our last mile access products are delivered via a range of mediums, including ADSL, Wireless, VSAT, Mobile and Fibre technologies. We have eight data centers in South Africa where we deliver a range of business grade cloud solutions, M2M services and a full suite of enterprise mobility solutions.

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