Microsoft Cloud in Egypt

At the just concluded 2019 Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, Microsoft announced the plan to open its first datacenter in Egypt.

This project is in collaboration with Telecom Egypt – the 165 years old Egyptian telephone company. Eighty percent share of Telecom Egypt belongs to the government of Egypt, Hence this is majorly a collaboration between Microsoft and the government of Egypt.

The partnership will bring Microsoft Cloud Presence to North Africa and the Middle East at low-latency. The new facility will therefore be an extension of Microsoft’s current global network which includes over 100 data centers, 135 edge node locations and over 100,000 miles of fiber and undersea cable systems. The exact location for the new data center in Egypt wasn’t disclosed.

“Egypt is capitalizing on its unique geographic location which makes it a hub for digital businesses and datacenter activity due to the strong presence of submarine cables passing through both the Red and Mediterranean seas,” said Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Egypt. Telecom Egypt has therefore benefited from the Country’s distinctive location which gives it access to more than 11 cable systems from the east, 13 from the west linked with the Red-Med Corridor consisting of 7 reliable routes across Egypt.

The partners believe that this network extension will transform the digital society and the economy, especially in the new regions. “We are continuously investing to increase the size, speed, reliability and intelligence of Microsoft’s global network to help enable the digital transformation of organizations and enterprises locally and abroad,” said Yousef Khalidi, CVP, Azure Networking, Microsoft. According to Talaat, this collaboration with Microsoft is in line with Egypt’s Sustainable Development Plan 2030.

“We are pleased to partner with Microsoft as it represents one of the first steps toward our strategic digital transformation plan,” said Adel Hamed, chief operating officer, Telecom Egypt. On the other hand, Khaled Abdel Kader, GM, Microsoft Egypt, said that Microsoft is committed to providing a world-class cloud services that will enable and accelerate the digital transformation of organizations, businesses and people in Egypt. “Our collaboration with Telecom Egypt and Microsoft’s investment in the country will further empower Egypt to achieve more through Microsoft services,” Kader added.

Microsoft collaboration with Telecom Egypt will not just extend currently running facilities of both parties but will also be connected to new and future facilities such as the new Microsoft’s facilities that are under development in South Africa and the United Arab Emirate.