T-Systems South Africa announced at their InTouch 2017 event that they will be
partnering with Microsoft offer Azure services to enterprise customers to the South
African market. T-Systems is already a global partner of Microsoft and, with this new
step, will be focusing on complementing their existing solutions with Microsoft Azure
cloud services to create additional value for customers.

Rajan Padayachee, head of solutions, projects and portfolio at T-Systems South Africa,
“Shortly after we announced our intention to bring our Open Telekom Cloud (OTC) to
South Africa, Microsoft announced that they will be offering Azure from local data
centres in South Africa. Considering our strong partnership with them, coupled with
the substantial investments that many of our customers have already made in
Microsoft services, T-Systems decided to invest in Microsoft’s local Azure cloud, with
the intention to maximise our customers’ investments and build on our partnership
with Microsoft.’

According to Padayachee, T-Systems plans to invest extensively in their Microsoft’s
Azure capabilities and offerings, a significant sum which underpins their determination
to become an important Azure Partner in South Africa. T-Systems’ is already a global
data trustee for Microsoft, so this partnership plays easily into both T-Systems and
Microsoft’s alliance strategy. The investment is certainly set to benefit Microsoft too,
as well as any customers who currently or intend on becoming Microsoft service users.

Says Gert Schoonbee, Managing Director of T-Systems South Africa, “T-Systems has
extensive experience in cloud solution deployments and cloud migrations. Despite the
considerable investments most customers have made in Microsoft and other T-
Systems solutions, many have been reluctant to move their critical infrastructure to
the cloud. However, Azure’s functionality makes it incredibly feasible to do so, for any
corporation, large or otherwise. Our goal is to leverage our experience and Azure
partnership to simplify the process of digitation and cloud migration while offering a
choice of cutting-edge solutions backed by unsurpassed SLAs.’

T-Systems has a strong market reputation, in particular, for their SAP cloud
migrations, and the introduction of the possibility to host SAP services on the vastly
superior hyperscale Azure cloud makes for promising times.

“Azure opens up the door for a new era of innovation. We will be able to leverage the
sheer computing power of hyperscale to offer customers critical business systems,
such as SAP, on a consume-as-you-need basis. Overlaid with T-Systems’ cloud
solutions, such as Cloudifier, Azure migration Factory etc., customers can benefit from
fast, simple and seamless migrations, enabling and accelerating their innovation
cycles,’ adds Padayachee.

Zoaib Hoosen, managing director of Microsoft South Africa, supports T-Systems’
investment, stating, “T-Systems South Africa has been a longstanding partner of
Microsoft for many years. We view this agreement as a reaffirmation of both our
global and local partnership and we give credit to the value that T-Systems’ brings,
with both their extensive cloud experience and their existing partnerships with other
entrenched business critical solution vendors.’

On T-Systems’ intentions with OTC, Schoonbee adds, “At this point, we are focused
firmly on establishing Azure as our primary hyperscale cloud partner. The main driver
for our original OTC decision was the association with a hyperscale cloud hosted in
South Africa. Microsoft Azure will address this need. Our plan to be the cloud broker of
choice in South Africa means that we will take the steps necessary to provide our
customers with the best possible choices and solutions. To this end, we shall continue
to innovate and drive the digital transformation of South Africa, and if this includes
scope for OTC alongside Azure in the future, we shall certainly not dismiss it.’