Liquid Telecom Launches Azure Stack Hub for Cloud Applications in Nairobi

Liquid Telecom has announced the deployment of its Azure Stack Hub in Nairobi, a Microsoft cloud service offering a step-change in cybersecurity for the region’s most sensitive databases.

The hub will enable businesses to meet local data regulatory requirements and efficiently run latency-sensitive business applications.

The firm says this investment displays its commitment to Kenya’s digital transformation by empowering businesses with a cloud solution that is locally available, highly secure, and enables real-time business continuity with flexible adoption models.

The service is available across East Africa, hosted in private cloud nodes in Kenya and Tanzania, making it possible to replicate databases at different locations to increase reliability and flexibility.

Liquid Telecom regional’s CEO, Adil El Youssefi, said that the company have been enabling business across the continent implement their digital transformation strategies. Youssefi says “with the increasing demand for data to be hosted locally, we have deployed Azure Stack cloud solution as we continue to foster economic and technological advancement in Kenya and the East Africa region at large.”

Using Azure Stack also opens the way to a level of cybersecurity that few organizations have the capacity to develop. “Microsoft spends some Sh. 108 billion ($1bn) a year on ensuring the security of its Azure platforms. This is a scale of spend and professional attention that companies cannot match or surpass in securing their data,” said Winston Ritson, Group Head of Cloud Services for the Liquid Telecom Group.

In 2017, Kenya lost over Sh21bn to cybercrime but the nation’s losses are expected to rise further on with new cyber threats, including attacks on built-in Windows IT admin tools, Powershell files and Windows Scripting executables.