Liquid Telecom widens availability of Microsoft Azure Stack across Africa

Having built Africa’s largest independent fibre network, spanning over 50,000km, Liquid Telecom operates state-of-the-art data centres in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Nairobi, with a combined 6,800 square metres of rack space. With these developments, Businesses in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Botswana, Mozambique and Mauritius will be able to leverage Azure Stack through Liquid Telecom. Writes Corporate Watch Magazine’s Moses Cheruiyot.

Leading pan-African telecoms group Liquid Telecom has announced the availability of Microsoft Azure Stack – an extension of an ever-expanding set of cloud services to consistently develop and run hybrid cloud applications – to select African markets.

Leveraging its pan-African fibre network and data centre capabilities, Liquid Telecom will be able to directly offer Azure Stack services to businesses operating in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Botswana, Mozambique and Mauritius.

The launch marks the first time that the Azure Stack platform will be available locally in these markets, offering businesses greater flexibility, security and cost savings by deploying hybrid cloud architecture and scenarios.

“The availability of Microsoft Azure Stack services in more African markets will enable more choice for customers in the region as they build and develop successful hybrid cloud environments to meet their growing business needs,” said Nic Rudnick, Group CEO, Liquid Telecom. “Azure Stack further expands our portfolio of world class solutions available to businesses of all sizes across the region. Africa’s Cloud is Liquid.”

By migrating to a hybrid cloud platform hosted in-country, businesses can access cloud applications that meet varied regulatory requirements, address latency and connectivity requirements by processing data locally in Azure Stack and much more.

“We’re continuing to extend the availability and capability of our services to meet the growing cloud requirements of businesses operating in some of the most dynamic African markets. Liquid Telecom offers infrastructure, reach and local expertise to successfully deliver Microsoft’s ever-expanding set of cloud services to the region,” said Amr Kamel, General Manager for Microsoft in West, East and Central Africa.

Businesses can use Liquid Telecom’s CloudConnect for Azure ExpressRoute to create direct high-speed connections between Azure data centres and Azure Stack cloud, bypassing the public internet.

Multi-tenancy Azure Stack managed by Liquid Telecom will be offered to customers at new data centre locations, including Dar es Salaam, Harare, Kigali, and Nairobi. Azure Stack will soon be made available to businesses across Liquid Telecom’s entire pan-African fibre network, which stretches over 50,000km and connects more African countries on a single network than any other. This is in addition to leading cloud-based services, such as Microsoft Office365 and Microsoft Azure, and innovative digital content provision, including Netflix, NBA, TED and Kwese Play.

Through this combined offering, Liquid Telecom is enhancing customers’ experience on their digital journey.