Angolan telecommunications multinational, Angola Cables, announced on 3 November 2017 that it has become a Microsoft ExpressRoute partner in an attempt to meet the needs of Africa-based organisations, who are migrating their business applications and IT infrastructures to the cloud. Taking advantage of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, Angola Cables has created ACloud Connect to provide dedicated 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 according to Angola Cables.
The company says that it will offer dedicated Ethernet links between customers’ infrastructures and Azure’s data centres– as well as run one of the world’s most advanced IP / MPLS backbones. Angola Cables believes that their ACloud Connect solution 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.”
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,” concluded Laurence Janssens, Country Manager, Microsoft Southern Africa.
Edited by Dean Workman
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