14 DAY TRIAL // Google is officially the first foreign company to turn on its data servers in Cuba. The move should help provide speedier Google services in the country, even though the Internet access in Cuba is rather restricted.
The change was spotted by Dyn Research on Wednesday and they noted that the server had gone live within the past 24 hours, indicating a new development for the Moutain View company. The Miami Herald quotes Doug Madory, the company's chief, who says that this is an important milestone, especially since Cuba had been closed off to the United States for so many years.
Google later confirmed the news, saying that the servers had just gone live. It is unclear, at this point, if the server is also active, not just online. Of course, this plan of expansion had been drawn up a long time ago and Google even went official with this in December, after it signed a deal with ETECSA, the Cuban state-run ISP. The move allows the ISP to deliver YouTube videos, for instance, from local storage, rather than having to slow everything down by taking the content from foreign servers.
"This will only improve Cuban users experience with Google webpages, with the most notable improvement being in loading YouTube videos. Video is very traffic intense, and caching popular videos locally will improve load time and relieve strain on ETECSA's congested international links," said Madory.
A wider problem
The problem for Cuba remains, however, that they cannot afford to get online. The steep prices for connection to the Internet, even for slow connections, is drawing many people away from what most of the world considers the norm nowadays.
That being said, it remains to be seen what other things Google expects to achieve here because this seems to be just the first step of many in branching out in the area.