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Big Data SA

Cloud Services & Migration

Cloud migration and managed cloud services in South Africa

Plan, migrate and run workloads on Azure and AWS - including the Johannesburg and Cape Town regions - without surprises on performance or cost.

Enquire about this service What we deliver

Last updated

In short

We help South African organisations move to Azure or AWS, run hybrid environments properly and keep cloud costs under control. Projects start with a readiness assessment and can continue as a managed cloud service. Most work is remote, with on-site support where needed.

The problem

Why this matters in South Africa

With Microsoft, AWS and Google all running local regions, data residency is no longer a blocker to cloud. The new problem is doing it well: lift-and-shift projects that cost more than the data centre they replaced, and environments nobody fully understands.

Rand-dollar exchange rates make cloud spend especially sensitive in South Africa. Without governance and right-sizing, monthly invoices drift upwards quietly.

On South Africa as a cloud hub

South Africa has become the technology and data centre hub for sub-Saharan Africa…
Jan HnizdoCEO, TeracoTechAfrica News, 12 August 2025

What we deliver

What's included in Cloud Services & Migration?

Cloud readiness assessment

An inventory of workloads, dependencies and costs with a clear recommendation for each: move, modernise, retain or retire.

Migration to SA regions

Planned, low-downtime migrations to Azure South Africa North/West or AWS Africa (Cape Town).

Hybrid cloud

Connect on-premises and cloud securely, with identity, networking and backup that work across both.

FinOps cost optimisation

Right-sizing, reservations and tagging so you know what every rand is buying.

Managed cloud operations

Monitoring, patching, security baselines and monthly reporting from a team that knows your estate.

Infrastructure as Code

Terraform and Bicep templates so environments are repeatable, reviewable and documented.

Ways to start

Typical engagements

2 to 3 weeks

Cloud readiness assessment

A workload inventory, cost model and migration plan.

1 to 2 weeks

Cloud cost review

A savings report with prioritised actions.

Monthly

Managed cloud operations

Monitoring, patching, security and cost control.

Typical timeframes. Every scope is confirmed after a free consultation.

How we engage

How does an engagement work?

Assess, design, implement, manage.

  1. 01

    Assess

    We understand your environment, risks and goals, then agree clear success measures.

  2. 02

    Design

    A practical architecture and plan, sized for your budget and growth.

  3. 03

    Implement

    Certified specialists deliver in planned stages, with testing and documentation.

  4. 04

    Manage

    Ongoing monitoring, support and optimisation - or a clean handover to your team.

Technologies & partners

  • Microsoft Azure
  • AWS
  • Terraform
  • Bicep
  • Azure Arc
  • Entra ID

Outcomes

What results can you expect?

Predictable spend

Clear budgets, alerts and typical savings of 20 to 35% on unmanaged estates.

Lower risk migrations

Tested runbooks and rollback plans for every wave.

Local residency

Workloads hosted in South African regions where required.

Documented environments

Everything defined in code, so nothing depends on one person's memory.

FAQ

Cloud migration South Africa: common questions

Microsoft Azure has regions in Johannesburg (South Africa North) and Cape Town (South Africa West), AWS has a region in Cape Town, and Google Cloud has a region in Johannesburg. That means you can run workloads and keep data in the country.

Not always. The cloud usually wins for changing workloads, fast growth and avoiding hardware refreshes. Steady workloads can cost more if they aren't right-sized and reserved. A readiness assessment compares the real costs, in rand, before you commit.

A readiness assessment takes 2 to 3 weeks. Moving a handful of servers can take a few weeks, while larger environments move in planned waves over a few months.

Cloud prices are set against the US dollar, so a weaker rand pushes local costs up. Idle resources, oversized machines and growing storage add to it. A cloud cost review usually finds quick savings. See how to cut your cloud bill.

Yes. You can choose South African regions for your workloads and backups. That keeps data in the country and avoids most of POPIA's cross-border transfer questions.

It depends on your existing licensing, skills and workloads. Many Microsoft-centric organisations benefit from Azure; we assess both and recommend honestly.

Usually, yes. Our FinOps review identifies idle resources, oversized instances and missed reservation savings.

Yes. Most clients keep some systems on-premises; we make both sides secure and manageable as one estate.

Related

Services that work well together

Backup & Disaster Recovery

Veeam-powered backup, ransomware-resilient copies and tested DR, with data securely stored.

Data Engineering & Platforms

Warehouses, lakehouses and reliable pipelines on Fabric, Databricks and Snowflake.

Managed Data Services & Contracting

Embedded data engineers, analysts and cloud specialists - locally or offshore.

Further readingIs Your Data AI-Ready? A Practical Guide for South African Organisations

Talk to us about cloud services & migration

Tell us what you're working on. You'll hear back from one of our senior specialists within a business day, usually sooner.

  • Free, no-obligation consultation
  • Veeam partner with certified specialists
  • POPIA-aware delivery, data securely stored when required
Help us prepare (optional)Takes about 30 seconds and means we come to the first call ready.

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