Less than 2% of global data centers are located in Africa. However, since the Covid-19 pandemic, cloud computing has garnered increasing interest, becoming a valuable alternative for businesses looking to digitize.

Orange Middle East & Africa (OMEA) and Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) announced on Wednesday, May 29, the signing of a partnership on the sidelines of the GITEX Africa technology fair in Morocco. The initiative aims to introduce AWS Wavelength in Morocco and Senegal by the end of the year. This solution will enable startups, businesses, and public agencies to process and store their data locally.

“The announcement of AWS Wavelength Zones for North & West Africa is a major achievement in our strategy to foster the cloud transformation of African businesses. We will help Moroccan and Senegalese organizations of all sizes benefit from AWS, while ensuring local data hosting in Orange’s secure data centers, along with our best connectivity solutions,” said Jérôme Hénique, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa.

In addition to establishing the first AWS Wavelength zones in Africa, this initiative also marks the introduction of the first Wavelength zones in countries without existing AWS regions or local zones. As part of the partnership, Orange will handle the hosting of services in its data centers, ensuring optimal security and reliability for users.

This partnership comes at a time when the demand for IT services in Africa continues to grow, attracting cloud computing operators. According to a report published in February by the audit and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), more than 80% of African businesses that have already partially or fully migrated to the cloud plan to increase their investments in this technology due to its positive impacts on their operations.

The introduction of AWS Wavelength is expected to allow customers to benefit from the cloud's on-demand, pay-as-you-go pricing model. This will enable them to keep their data localized while enjoying the same reliable, secure, and high-performance infrastructure as AWS regions.

Samira Njoya