MTN Business has announced a strategic partnership with Microsoft to provide a pan-African cloud platform that offers customers a true hybrid cloud solution serviced from MTN’s data centres. The platform is powered by Microsoft’s technology and is built on MTN’s Global MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) network which has 23 points of presence across the globe. This will ensure an enhanced customer experience due to lower latency and better response times.  

In line with the characteristics of cloud, MTN's customers will be provided with a self-service management portal, powered by Microsoft Azure Pack, with a consistent look and feel as Microsoft Azure, one of the best public cloud offerings. The platform runs off enterprise-grade infrastructure, providing clients with flexibility and increasing their agility.  

Says Alpheus Mangale, Chief Enterprise Officer for MTN Business SA: “We have undertaken a strategic journey that has prepared us to become a formidable and a key player in the ICT space. We have developed tailored and bespoke solutions that cater to the requirements of our corporates, SMEs, multinationals and public sector customers across our footprint in Africa and the Middle East.

The partnership with Microsoft is a testament of our commitment to be the preferred partner of choice for all our enterprise customers across all sectors of the economy.

He adds: “We are excited to be embarking on this journey with Microsoft to offer this cutting edge solution to our customers. The partnership between MTN and Microsoft will deliver a combination of strengths and capabilities that will enable our clients to harness a world class hybrid cloud solution.  MTN Business Cloud will give our clients the peace of mind that they are using a solution from a global company that is backed by MTN’s reputation, expansive reach and proven track record across Africa and the Middle East.”

This offering will provide corporates and the public sector with a platform to build and run mission critical applications for their end users, as well as develop and host new applications for their own customers. In addition, customers can use the platform as a disaster recovery site to comply with their own business continuity requirements. 

Microsoft South Africa MD, Zoaib Hoosen, adds: “Microsoft is pleased to have worked with MTN on these solutions that will provide MTN’s customers with additional choice when it comes to their cloud journey. We value partnerships like these, as they play a big part in Microsoft being the only vendor positioned as a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrants for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, Application Platform as a Service, and Cloud Storage Services for the second consecutive year.”

The decision to launch MTN Business Cloud platform follows the unveiling of Africa’s first Pan African Internet of Things (IoT) platform, which lays the foundations for the introduction of a global Machine-to-Machine (M2M) sim card which is expected to give customers the same rate for M2M activity across MTN’s footprint in Africa.

“All of our offerings are in line with our strategic intent of refining our traditional product offering, as well as actively developing new opportunities to ensure MTN continues to inspire and enable the growth of our customers,” Mangale adds.

MTN will offer Azure ExpressRoute at the end of the third quarter of 2015. This will leverage MTN’s Global MPLS network, enabling the company to offer a more reliable, secure and faster connection to the Microsoft Azure data centres through a private connection as opposed to going over the public Internet. 

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