2024 Cloud and Security Conference — Chris Erasmus on AWS’s commitment to sustainability in South Africa

AWS Country Manager for South Africa, Chris Erasmus, recently spoke at the 2024 MyBroadband Cloud and Security Conference, where he discussed AWS’s commitment to sustainable development in South Africa.

Erasmus is a well-respected ICT industry professional with over 15 years of strategic, commercial, and operational experience.

He previously worked as the General Manager for Dimension Data’s Data Centre Business Unit in the Western Cape, Angola, and Namibia.

He has also been an Account Manager for AxizWorkgroup and Drive Control Corporation.

In his current role, Erasmus is responsible for setting AWS’s local strategy and guiding its regional growth.

Conference presentation

At the 2024 MyBroadband Cloud and Security Conference, Erasmus spoke about the rise of AWS and its growth in Africa.

AWS has placed a big focus on Sub-Saharan Africa for many years, and it reiterated its commitment to the local market when it launched its 3 availability zone region in Cape Town in 2020.

“We launched this region because it is critically important for us to have infrastructure as close to our clients as possible,” said Erasmus.

These availability zones require reliable and sustainable energy to meet AWS’s resiliency needs.

AWS took a big step towards this in 2022 when it brought its first South African solar project online.

This project, located in the Kalahari Desert, was the first local solar project built for a corporation rather than a utility.

It offers 10MW of power and is 60% owned by black women — a historically underrepresented group in infrastructure and utility ownership.

“Our investment into this solar plant aligns with the global group’s commitment to sustainable energy,” said Erasmus.

He explained that in 2019, AWS committed to matching its total energy consumption across Amazon’s global operations – including its data centres, corporate buildings, grocery stores and fulfilment centres – with renewable energy by 2030.

The company is so committed to sustainability that in 2023, it announced it met this target seven years ahead of schedule.

Chris Erasmus, AWS Country Manager for South Africa

Skills transformation

Erasmus also talked about AWS South Africa’s commitment to skills development.

“In December 2020, AWS committed to provide free cloud computing skills training to 29 million people worldwide by 2025,” Erasmus explained.

“More than a year ahead of schedule, we have already surpassed this figure – having helped more than 31 million learners across 200 countries.”

He said that AWS’s focus on skills development is particularly strong in South Africa, and the company’s Cape Town AWS Skills Centre is proof of this.

This facility was launched in August 2023, and is the first of its kind to be opened outside of the USA.

The centre delivers free training that helps non-technical learners build new cloud skills and unlock career opportunities for in-demand tech jobs.

Over 20,000 people have already used the Cape Town AWS Skills Centre, while 300,000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa have been trained through a wide range of other initiatives since 2017.

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