Google Cloud Platform to launch Brazil region
Google has announced plans to launch its cloud platform in Brazil to cater for growing service demand from local organisations.
Brazil will be the first Latin American country to be part of the Google Cloud Network and becomes the eighth region of the portfolio in addition to Northern Virginia in the US, Singapore, Germany, Australia, India, Finland and the UK.
The Brazil-based infrastructure will be available from 2017 and will serve businesses that require local data hosting. The location will remain undisclosed for security reasons and services will be charged in US dollars.
Google's global infrastructure expansion is part of an overall refocusing of its cloud strategy and plans to become predominantly a cloud services provider by 2020. The firm is eager to catch up with other providers such as Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, who have been making investments to accommodate cloud demand from Brazilian businesses.
According to IDC, the Brazilian cloud services market should see yearly growth of 20 percent by 2020. The segment - which was largely spared by the recession as local users sought to boost efficiency while reducing cost - should also see a jump in market revenues from $328.8m in 2013 to $1.1bn by 2017, according to Frost & Sullivan.