Liquid Telecom, a pan African telecoms group, has partnered with Microsoft through the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) programme to deliver scalable and secure cloud services across Africa.

As an official CSP partner, Liquid Telecom will for the first time serve businesses of all sizes in Africa with cloud services and products such as Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Office 365, Enterprise Mobility Suite and Windows 10.

The agreement brings together Microsoft Azure Cloud and Liquid Telecom's fibre network, which stretches over 50,000 km and connects African countries and enterprises on a single network.

Initially on offer to customers in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Kenya, Microsoft cloud services will eventually be made available across Liquid Telecom entire network footprint.

Liquid Telecom describes Africa as one of the most dynamic and fast-growing cloud markets in the world, where cloud services are being used to transform businesses and accelerate innovations in areas such as agriculture, education and healthcare.

Nic Rudnick, Liquid Telecom group CEO said, "Demand for cloud services is increasing exponentially across Africa as organisations look for greater agility, flexibility and security to grow their businesses".

"Through our extensive open access fibre network and integrated data centre capability in Southern and Eastern Africa, Microsoft and Liquid Telecom is better positioned to serve Africa's digital future, which increasingly belongs in the cloud".

Bruno Delamarre, MEA One Commercial Partners Group Lead at Microsoft said, "the adoption of smart, cloud-based solutions continues to gain traction in Africa, thanks to cloud solution providers such as Liquid Telecom who are leveraging the Microsoft Azure platform to more quickly build innovative offerings that become critical components of customers' IT strategies".

Microsoft has committed to investing in cloud services delivered from Africa. In May 2017, Microsoft revealed plans to deliver Microsoft cloud for the first time from data centres located in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa with initial availability anticipated in 2018.