Business mogul Strive Masiyiwa’s trailblazing pan-African telecoms group, Liquid Telecom has strengthened its partnership with global tech giant Microsoft after expanding the accessibility of Microsoft Azure services across its inter-Africa network which spans over 70,000km stretching from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo in Egypt.
Liquid Telecom is the first African telecoms operator to attain a Microsoft Gold Partnership deal, making it the biggest and most diversified Internet Service Provider with integrated Wholesale Carrier Network services.
“We are delighted by the launch of Microsoft’s cloud regions in Africa, and by extending the reach of Microsoft Azure to an increasing number of countries and customers, Liquid Telecom is helping Africa realise its digital future,” said Nic Rudnick, Group CEO, Liquid Telecom.
Liquid Telecom brings cloud-optimised connectivity offering the benefits of low latency, high capacity and resiliency to businesses across Africa. With the availability of Microsoft’s Azure regions in South Africa and using local Microsoft Azure Stack deployments in Liquid Telecom’s African data centres connected via Microsoft ExpressRoute, customers are able to access a hybrid cloud solution residing within the African continent.
“We offer customers a single, unified solution for their Microsoft Azure strategy. This is underpinned by an unrivalled fibre network, strategically located data centres, a hybrid cloud architecture covering Azure and the Azure Stack and an ExpressRoute connection to maximise the benefits of the cloud. Together, Microsoft and Liquid Telecom are creating a modern business foundation for customers in Africa – one that inspires innovation, cloud-paced change, compliance and business growth.” added Nic Rudnick.
Liquid Telecom customers will be benefit from the company’s forward-thinking ecosystem: world-class data centres, connected via a pan-African fibre network approaching 70,000km; offering the Microsoft Azure Stack hybrid cloud in five countries in Africa; and the company’s position as a Microsoft Tier I and Tier II Cloud Solution Provider.
A private, high performance CloudConnect via Microsoft ExpressRoute, together with Liquid Telecom’s expert cloud enablement services, also enable customers to accelerate their cloud deployment and achieve faster time to value.
“This availability of Microsoft Azure, delivered from cloud regions in South Africa, answers the call from customers across Africa for a truly modern and hybrid cloud,” said Dean Erasmus, Azure Business Lead for Africa, Microsoft.
The Liquid Telecom ecosystem brings cloud services in Africa together, offering customers a one-stop solution for cloud computing, connectivity, and professional services through Microsoft Azure and Azure Stack. Liquid Telecom now provides this modern hybrid cloud services in five countries – South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda – with more regions scheduled to go live later including the Middle East, North and West Africa.
