Pan-African telco group and Microsoft Gold Partner Liquid Telecom has announced the availability of Microsoft Azure across its pan-African network, approaching 70,000km and stretching via a direct terrestrial high speed fibre link across the continent.

In a statement the network firm said the availability of Microsoft's Azure regions in South Africa and using local Microsoft Azure Stack deployments in Liquid Telecom's African datacentres connected via Microsoft ExpressRoute, customers are able to access a hybrid cloud solution residing within the African continent.

"This scale-out of the Microsoft cloud-based architecture offers customers across the African continent greater opportunities for agility, security, and compliance. It also offers increased efficiencies and improved performance for business and public sector organisations operating in Africa, but also multi-nationals with a presence in Africa," the company stated.

It asserted that this availability of the new Azure cloud regions will empower businesses with access to globally available services "with local data residency and the benefits of low latency, high local capacity built upon Microsoft's trusted cloud principles of security, privacy, compliance, transparency and reliability."

Nic Rudnick, Group CEO, Liquid Telecom, said, "We are delighted by the launch of Microsoft's cloud regions in Africa, and by extending the reach of Microsoft Azure to an increasing number of countries and customers, Liquid Telecom is helping Africa realise its digital future."

"We offer customers a single, unified solution for their Microsoft Azure strategy. This is underpinned by an unrivalled fibre network, strategically located datacentres, a hybrid cloud architecture covering Azure and the Azure Stack and an ExpressRoute connection to maximise the benefits of the cloud."

Dean Erasmus, Azure Business Lead for Africa, Microsoft , said, "This availability of Microsoft Azure, delivered from cloud regions in South Africa, answers the call from customers across Africa for a truly modern and hybrid cloud. It enables customers across the continent to simplify IT implementation and reap the benefits associated with cloud operating models, either hosted or delivered on-premise. Liquid Telecom is a trusted partner of Microsoft with the breadth of their fibre network, data centre infrastructure, market reach and expertise to enable customers to realise their business objectives more quickly and effectively."

Liquid Telecom now provides hybrid cloud services in five countries including South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda, with more regions scheduled to go live later including the Middle East, North and West Africa.