In a bid to offer its customers a hybrid cloud solution serviced from its data centres, MTN Business has launched a pan-African cloud platform. Powered by Microsoft’s technology, the cloud is built on MTN’s Global MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) network which has 23 points of presence across the globe.
The cloud is expected to provide corporates and the public sector with a platform to build and run mission-critical applications for their end users, as well as develop and host new applications for their own customers. Furthermore, it is forecast that customers can use the platform as a disaster recovery site to comply with their own business continuity requirements.
The decision to launch MTN Business Cloud platform follows the unveiling of Africa’s first Pan African Internet of Things (IoT) platform, which lays the foundations for the introduction of a global Machine-to-Machine (M2M) sim-card which is expected to give customers the same rate for M2M activity across MTN’s footprint in Africa.
MTN will offer Microsoft Express Route at the end of the third quarter of 2015. It is anticipated that this will leverage MTN’s Global MPLS network, enabling the company to offer solutions based on both MTN and Microsoft’s Cloud platforms which will eliminate the need to use the Internet.