Snowflake , the AI Data Cloud company, announced its growing footprint in South Africa with the general availability of Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Africa (Cape Town) Region, enabling customers to unlock deeper data insights powered by AI to drive business innovation, all while meeting the highest standards of data residency and sovereignty.

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The deployment of Snowflake on AWS Africa (Cape Town) Region comes at an important time for organisations to align with local data residency regulations. The Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), which, similar to Europe’s GDPR, governs the processing of personal information and places stringent requirements on how data is handled, including its transfer across borders. Additionally, South Africa’s National Policy on Data and Cloud explicitly sets out requirements for government and public-sector data to be stored within the country’s borders. Snowflake’s deployment on AWS Africa (Cape Town) Region, the latest development in a long-term partnership with AWS, brings data closer to the customer and helps boost end-users’ trust in their cloud infrastructure.

“Snowflake’s expansion in South Africa is a pivotal step in our commitment to supporting and empowering local organisations with faster, cost-efficient, and secure data solutions that enable customers to meet local data regulations, all without compromising on performance or innovation,” said Luan Reineck, Country Manager, South Africa. “With our partnership and local deployment on AWS, organisations in South Africa can leverage the power of Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud to do more with their data and AI, all while retaining control over their data, hosting customer data locally and fostering trust with their end customers.”

Customers in South Africa, such as Carry1st, BluNova, and Mukuru are already using Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud to better access data to drive business decision-making, and capitalise on AI, all within a secure and governed platform.

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“As we scale our operations at Carry1st, and work with our team across 20 different countries, it’s critical that we have the right technology to make data-driven decisions about the business and our customers,” said Ziyaad Kumandan, Lead Data Engineer at Carry1st. “Through Snowflake’s easy, connected, and trusted platform we have been able to reduce infrastructure costs by up to 45%, improve data refresh rates by over 300%, and enable faster insights and enhanced customer interactions.”

With Snowflake’s deployment on AWS Africa (Cape Town) Region, regional customers have further flexibility of choice for deployment, and are able to choose a geographical region that best suits their operational needs.

As part of its continued investment in the South African market, Snowflake is closely collaborating with its diverse network of system integration partners to drive the One Million Minds initiative, designed to empower learners globally with training and the development of cutting-edge AI skills. By leveraging Snowflake’s extensive and diverse group of partners, the scaled growth of Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud platform will position local system integrators, AWS and Snowflake at the forefront of Africa’s digital transformation, empowering local businesses to unlock the full potential of their data, accelerate growth and compete on a global scale.

Snowflake will host a launch event on September 3 at The Old Biscuit Mill, Cape Town to celebrate bringing Snowflake’s AI Data Cloud to the region and providing businesses with unmatched scalability, security and performance.