ATLAS distributed analysis in the context of Africa:benefits and contributions

The ATLAS collaboration includes 174 universities and laboratories spread across 38 countries. Due to the large amount of information (over 55 PB including simulation and derived data) to be shared amongst collaborators across the world, ATLAS has developed tools and policies aimed at allowing all collaborators to efficiently access data and shared computing resources from their home institutes as well as efficiently use the available resources for general tasks like generation of Monte-Carlo events, and processing of real data. This poster gives an outline of the ATLAS distributed computing model and the current status of distributed computing resources in South Africa. The particular challenges facing African institutes with accessing and contributing to these shared resources will be highlighted.