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South African firms aim to save money by using overseas hosting, but the real-world drawbacks can harm business & customer experience
Driving SD-WAN Adoption in South Africa
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South African businesses, in a bid to cut costs, often look to hosting their infrastructure offshore, particularly in Europe or the United States. On paper, the savings can seem tempting—after all, hosting in a region with vast data centre options and economies of scale should deliver good value, right? Unfortunately, the reality is far less ideal. This pursuit of cheap offshore hosting introduces significant technical and experiential drawbacks that can severely impact business operations, customer satisfaction, and overall efficiency.
Every time data traverses the thousands of kilometres between South Africa and an offshore data centre, it incurs latency. While fibre-optic networks have made intercontinental connections faster, the speed of light remains a hard limit. A round trip from South Africa to Europe or the US can take between 150ms to 300ms.
For modern applications—whether it's real-time communications, SaaS platforms, or cloud-hosted business systems—this delay is significant. Users experience lag, sluggish responses, and poor performance, leading to frustrated employees and dissatisfied customers.
To add insult to injury, European customers of the same providers enjoy low latency, often in the range of 5–20ms. These businesses get the premium experience, while South African companies are left dealing with a substandard product at the same price.
South Africa’s access to offshore hosting relies heavily on undersea cables like WACS, SAFE, or EASSy. While these cables generally provide robust connectivity, they are single points of failure. When a cable experiences downtime (as has happened multiple times), South African businesses relying on offshore hosting face:
Increased latency: Traffic is rerouted through alternative, longer paths.
Degraded performance: Congested routes amplify delays and packet loss.
Extended outages: Until repairs are complete, businesses may lose access to critical systems.
Meanwhile, hosting locally circumvents this risk entirely, ensuring continuous access and a more stable user experience.
South Africa has strict data protection laws, including the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). Hosting sensitive data offshore can create compliance challenges:
Jurisdictional issues: Data stored in Europe or the US falls under their laws, potentially conflicting with POPIA.
Security concerns: Transferring data over long distances increases exposure to interception or breaches.
Audit difficulties: Ensuring compliance becomes harder when data is spread across international borders.
Local hosting, on the other hand, keeps data within South African jurisdiction, simplifying compliance and bolstering trust with customers.
One of the most frustrating aspects of offshore hosting is how global vendors with no local presence in South Africa continue to charge South African businesses the same rates as their European or American counterparts. This disparity is infuriating because:
European customers get more value: Their low-latency access and proximity to data centres deliver a premium experience for the same cost.
South African users pay a "distance tax": Despite the same price tag, businesses here endure the downsides of high latency and potential connectivity disruptions.
These vendors fail to recognise the unique challenges South African customers face and make no effort to adjust pricing or services accordingly.
Hosting in a South African data centre ensures that your infrastructure is geographically close to your customers, employees, and partners. This proximity translates to:
Sub-10ms latency: Comparable to the experience European users enjoy with their local hosting.
Faster applications: Whether it’s ERP systems, websites, or cloud platforms, local hosting ensures quick responses.
Local hosting eliminates the reliance on undersea cables, significantly improving resilience. South African data centres typically feature:
Redundant fibre routes: Protecting against single points of failure.
Better SLAs: Uptime and response times tailored to local needs.
Keeping data local simplifies POPIA compliance and ensures data sovereignty. South African hosting providers are better equipped to handle local regulatory requirements, reducing legal and reputational risks for businesses.
By choosing local hosting, South African businesses invest in the growth of the country’s tech ecosystem. This encourages the development of more robust infrastructure, creates jobs, and fosters innovation.
Global vendors without a local South African presence deserve criticism for their lack of investment in the region. Their refusal to deploy local data centres while charging the same as they do in Europe or the US is exploitative. These companies benefit from South African customers without giving them an equitable experience.
South African businesses should prioritise providers with a local presence. Notable global vendors like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud now have data centres or regions in South Africa, setting a standard for others to follow.
For those still stuck offshore, it’s time to demand better. Vendors must either:
Deploy infrastructure in South Africa to ensure equitable performance.
Adjust pricing to reflect the inferior experience South African customers endure.
Cheap offshore hosting is a false economy for South African businesses. The allure of cost savings quickly evaporates when weighed against the technical and operational challenges of high latency, undersea cable dependencies, and data sovereignty issues.
Instead of chasing short-term savings, South African companies should invest in local hosting solutions that deliver superior performance, compliance, and resilience. By doing so, they can avoid the pitfalls of offshore hosting and support the growth of South Africa’s digital economy.
As for the vendors who refuse to invest locally but still demand premium prices—your days of exploiting South African customers need to end. The market deserves better.