By Dipo Olowookere
Angola Cables has partnered with Microsoft ExpressRoute in order to meet the needs of Africa-based organisations migrating business applications and IT infrastructures to the cloud and accelerating digital transformation on the continent.
Angola Cables has created ACloud Connect by taking advantage of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to provide dedicated, high-quality connections to a worldwide network of 42 Azure regions offered by Microsoft, and connectivity to Angonap Angola Cables’ data centre located in Luanda.
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.
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.
Commenting, CEO at Angola Cables, Antonio Nunes, remarked that, “We see ACloud Connect as a natural extension of customers’ own IT infrastructures.”
“In addition to benefiting from the scale and economics of Microsoft Azure, Africa-based customers should also look forward to low latency services,” Nunes added.
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.
“Microsoft’s enterprise experience and approach to the cloud addresses customers’ needs in a differentiated way. 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.
“Through the partnership with Microsoft, Angola Cables seems to be making all the right moves to become a key enabler of cloud adoption on the continent,” said Lehlohhonolo Mokenela, Industry Analyst for the Digital Transformation Practice at Frost & Sullivan Africa. “The impact on latency and the cost of bandwidth will make cloud an even more viable option for enterprises across Africa. This will also see greater demand from small and medium enterprises (SMEs), a segment of the market that typically drives cloud adoption in some of the more developed countries. With SACS due to go live in 2018, Angola is well-positioned to become an important technology hub in the region.”
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.”
Adedapo Adesanya 
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