Angola Cables partners Microsoft on digital transformation

Angola Cables has announced that it has become a Microsoft Express Route partner to meet the needs of Africa-based organisations migrating business application and IT infrastructure to the cloud and accelerating digital transformation on the continent.

The company, expected to participate in African, media technology event, AfricaCom beginning next Monday in South Africa, said it has created ACloud Connect to provide dedicated, high-quality connections to a worldwide network of 42 Azure regions offered by Microsoft, and connectivity to Angola Cables’s data center located in Luabda.

Offering dedicated Ethernet links between customers’ infrastructures and Azure’s data centres– as well as running one of the world’s most advanced IP / MPLS backbones – Angola Cables ACloud Connect will interconnect Africa and the rest of the world. Expected to be available in November 2017, Angola Cables will initially concentrate on servicing Angola and South Africa-based organisations with ACloud Connect.

“We see ACloud Connect as a natural extension of customers’ own IT infrastructures,” said Antonio Nunes, CEO at Angola Cables. “In addition to benefiting from the scale and economics of Microsoft Azure, Africa-based customers should also look forward to low latency services.”

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Complementing NAPAfrica in South Africa – offering peering across sub-Saharan Africa – the Azure cloud platform will help protect organisations’ online assets as they look to expand globally, while maintaining ‘data residency’ on the African continent.
“Our unique approach to the cloud spans three areas that, when combined, give customers the most choice and flexibility with the cloud: enterprise capabilities, global cloud infrastructure, and comprehensive hybrid solutions,” said Laurence Janssens, Country Manager, Microsoft Southern Africa.

Mokenela further notes that economies with relatively more mature technology adoption such as South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, are already witnessing a growing transition towards the cloud. “These types of partnerships, along with the impending arrival of new cables like SACS, can provide the platform for greater cloud uptake across the rest of the continent as well.”

As one of the world’s most trusted and flexible enterprise-grade cloud computing platforms, Azure allows organisations to extend on-premises networks into the cloud over a private connection. Because ExpressRoute connections do not go over the public internet, customers experience reliable, fast and more predictable connectivity than conventional connections.