Orange Business Services will design and build a data centre to provide cloud services for Egypt’s ‘New Administrative Capital
The project is expected to be implemented in collaboration with Orange Egypt, who will supply the required infrastructure and services, following their appointment as the project’s prime contractor by Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD) – owner and developer of the New Administrative Capital.
The ACUD project has been designed as a smart sustainable city located 45km east of Cairo on a greenfield site, covering a total area of 700 sq km mid-way to the seaport city of Suez. According to the plans, it will become the new administrative and financial capital of Egypt, housing the main government departments and ministries, as well as foreign embassies, with a population of around eight million people.
ACUD has defined a master plan for the smart sustainable city based on five main pillars: safety, connectivity, integration, digitalization, and replicability. The ICT strategy is an essential component in the fulfilment of ACUD’s vision, and the new fully secured data centre will be a cornerstone of the new city.
The services offered by the data centre are planned to start on schedule, in the first half of 2021, despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Once implemented, Orange Egypt will also manage and operate the new data centre to host and run smart services for the private sector, as well as citizens of the new city, for five years.
“In addition to investing in smart city projects, which Orange is distinguished with its expertise in the fields of digital solutions and smart cities provided by Orange Business Services, Orange also has provided many services to the smart city sector through various partnerships -- the most prominent of which is the New Administrative Capital, where the new data centre is now being built. It is expected to be one of the largest centres in the Arab world and Africa, with investments of more than US$135mn, and aims to enhance data and host all smart city platforms of the Administrative Capital in a secure and integrated way,” said Hisham Marhan, Orange Egypt chief enterprise line of business officer.
