Orange Middle East & Africa (OMEA) and Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) have jointly announced their upcoming deployment of AWS Wavelength in Morocco and Senegal later this year
This collaboration aims to provide startups, enterprises, and public organisations with the opportunity to securely process and store data locally, utilise AWS services for digital innovation, and create low-latency applications. These zones mark the pioneering AWS Wavelength Zones accessible through both wireless and wireline connections, empowering any customer to deploy and operate applications locally on AWS infrastructure situated in Orange data centers. This initiative enables developers to cater to various use cases, particularly in highly regulated sectors such as telecom, finance, public services, and healthcare, as well as industries reliant on low-latency applications like gaming. By extending AWS services locally, customers can seamlessly integrate with their existing applications and access the full spectrum of cloud services available in an AWS Region, benefiting from the security, scalability, and reliability of AWS.
The demand for cloud services in Africa is robust, with the Infrastructure as a Service & Platform as a Service sectors projected to grow annually by 18% to reach US$13bn by 2028. McKinsey reports early indications of Africa's growing embrace of cloud services, indicating sustained momentum in this direction. The introduction of the new AWS Wavelength Zones will enable customers to harness cloud capabilities while meeting compliance standards for applications necessitating local data hosting.
Orange, a prominent global telecommunications operator with a customer base exceeding 298 million worldwide and a presence in 26 countries, including 18 in Africa and the Middle East, stands as a key partner in this endeavor. As an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner, Orange boasts a proven track record of supporting enterprises in their cloud adoption journeys. Leveraging the new local infrastructure, alongside existing AWS Regions, Orange is poised to drive cloud adoption in Africa. Additionally, Orange will serve as an anchor customer for the AWS Wavelength Zones, deploying some of its IT workloads locally to accelerate its digital transformation efforts.
Jérôme Hénique, CEO at Orange Middle East and Africa said, “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 are providing the benefits of AWS to Moroccan and Senegalese organisations, from SMBs to MNCs, while ensuring data residency in secure Orange Datacenters in combination with our best-in-class connectivity solutions.”
Historically, AWS Wavelength Zones have existed in countries with AWS Regions. Today’s announcement showcases a new and evolved AWS Wavelength Zone design to help meet the needs of customers in these emerging geographies, providing the key benefit of bringing AWS services into countries without an AWS Region or AWS Local Zone. Customers can deploy their applications to AWS compute and storage located within Orange’s data centers in Morocco and Senegal, so application traffic only needs to travel from the device to the local AWS Wavelength Zone either via Orange’s network or the network of another mobile or internet service provider. With the new design, customers can deploy applications with low latency and granular data residency controls, providing further choice to help customers address stringent data residency requirements, such as in-country for regulatory, contractual, or security reasons. The work together will also strengthen local digital businesses and startups, by encouraging innovation and offering simplified access to cloud services and development tools.
“The deployment of AWS Wavelength Zones in North and West Africa, in collaboration with Orange, will further empower customers in growing geographies with local AWS services,” said Jan Hofmeyr, vice-president of EC2 Edge at AWS. “Customers of all sizes and all industries in Morocco and Senegal will be able to access local AWS compute and storage for data residency, low latency, and security needs for applications across real-time gaming and regulated industries, helping customers unlock new innovation and accelerate digital transformation.”
Swarmio is a telco-grade gaming technology provider that offers unparalleled solutions that elevate the gaming experience and drive revenue for both telcos and game publishers. “There is a dynamic and growing gamer community in Africa, including Morocco and Senegal, and we want to provide them with advanced gaming experiences but run into technical hurdles involving locally available cloud services,” said Vijai Karthigesu, CEO and Founder of Swarmio. “AWS Wavelength will help us transform the worldwide gaming landscape by combining the power of AWS with our Swarmio Edge platform to provide an unmatched, low-latency experience that allows creators to connect and delights global game publishers and developers.”
Orange & AWS boost Senegal's cloud services
The demand for cloud services in Africa is robust, with the Infrastructure as a Service & Platform as a Service sectors projected to grow annually by 18% to reach US$13bn by 2028. (Image source: Adobe Stock)
