SAP will open a new BRL 19 million (USD 6.5 million) data centre in São Paulo, Brazil, at the end of Q3, offering human capital management (HCM) solutions. In partnership with US data centre and internet exchange provider Equinix, it will be SAP’s first data centre in Latin America, and its 17th worldwide.

According to Equinix Brazil’s sales director, Rodrigo Guerrero, the data centre will offer direct connectivity to 1,100 telecoms operators and 6,250 companies, which include financial institutions and digital content providers.

JBS, the world’s largest beef processor (by sales), is one of the companies that will benefit from the new data centre. “It is in line with our demand for use of the solutions throughout South America. Now, we can improve our best practices in talent management and continue the development of our 134,000 employees in the region, which in turn will help us strengthen our global leadership in food production, “said João Pilla, CIO of JBS.

Juan Albelo, vice president of SAP SuccessFactors Latin America and the Caribbean said “it’s not a surprise that SAP HCM solutions are growing at double digit rates in the region, so this data centre will allow us to meet this growing demand: we hope to offer from there all the resources necessary to maximize the benefits in real time using our solutions “.

According to Elizabeth Rennie, Global Workforce Solutions Research Director at Staffing Industry Analysts: “This follows a trend that cloud-based service providers with global customers are increasingly opening regional data centres. The South American data centre will greatly improve the ability to offer faster connectivity in the region to SAP SuccessFactors’ cloud HR services, supporting greater system performance, improved employee experience and reduced networking costs.”

“Further, this offers local companies greater protection against any possible data protection issues. Back in November 2015, SuccessFactors president, Mike Ettling warned of “major trouble for the cloud industry” if more countries follow Russia’s example in bringing in laws that require certain types of personal data to be stored in-country.”

The facility is expected to come online in the first quarter of next year.

Source: Staffing Industry Analysts