Cloud & Virtualisation

Cassava Technologies, a global technology leader of African heritage, has announced the launch of its Cassava Cloud Partner (CCP) programme during MWC26.

Red Hat announced on Sunday that Telefónica Brazil (a.k.a. Vivo) has migrated its business-critical service bus IT production environment from its legacy virtualisation stack to Red Hat OpenShift.

Microsoft said it remains on track to invest US$50 billion by 2030 to expand access to artificial intelligence across emerging markets in the Global South, framing the move as part of a broader effort to narrow what it calls the growing “AI divide”.

Japan’s NTT Data announced on Monday it has struck a deal to buy UAE-based regional cloud consultancy Zero&One, which it says will strengthen its cloud capabilities in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region.

Malaysian telco Maxis revealed on Thursday it has migrated its mission-critical workloads – including those for all of its digital services – from the Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Singapore Region to the AWS Malaysia Region.

Gulf Edge, the digital infrastructure arm of Thai energy company Gulf Energy Development, has announced it is partnering with Google Cloud to transform Gulf and its affiliates into AI-native firms, with Thai telco AIS serving as the transformation model.

Google Cloud launched its new Bangkok cloud region on Wednesday, with three availability zones offering customers in Thailand access to in-country Google Cloud services and AI technologies.

Angola Cables has reportedly launched its third cloud node in Angola as an extension of its pan-African Clouds2Africa platform, along with a new programme to provide free cloud services for startups and local entrepreneurs.

Carrier-neutral data centre network Wingu Africa has announce the launch of Wingu Cloud Exchange (WCX), a locally hosted private cloud platform designed for the wider East African region.

In today’s hyper-competitive landscape, telecom operators face constant pressure to reduce costs. The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the required network infrastructure, data centres, dedicated IT teams and licensing models is constantly escalating – an issue that is often compounded by outdated IT architectures. These rigid systems can hinder or prevent operators from swiftly launching new services or adopting new commercial models, leading them to miss opportunities for revenue generation.

MTN said on Friday it has migrated its Enterprise Value Analytics (EVA) platform in South Africa to Microsoft Azure, which it says will give the telco greater agility and intelligence in how it uses data to enhance customer experience, improve operational efficiency, and enable responsible AI deployment.

At GITEX GLOBAL 2025, Huawei successfully convened the Industry Intelligent Operations Forum, gathering over 50 overseas customers and partners to explore the future of AI-driven operational transformation.

Indian telco Bharti Airtel announced on Wednesday it has signed a strategic partnership deal with IBM to upgrade its recently launched Airtel Cloud service to enable enterprises in regulated industries to better scale AI workloads across multiple environments.

Tata Consultancy Services, a major name in IT services, consulting and business solutions headquartered in India, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indian government group the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to accelerate the development of India’s sovereign cloud ecosystem.

Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud have teamed with Malaysian state-backed telecoms infrastructure operator Smartsel to launch Selangor Multi-Cloud Services (SMC), a state initiative aimed at accelerating AI adoption and driving digital transformation across Selangor.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) says it has partnered with Philippine telco NOW Telecom to co-design, develop, and deploy scalable and secure digital infrastructure that includes the creation of a sovereign data cloud for public and private sectors.

Xtelify, a fully owned subsidiary of Indian operator Bharti Airtel that houses Airtel’s digital assets and capabilities, has announced the launch of what it describes as a sovereign, telco-grade cloud platform called Airtel Cloud, along with software platform deals in a number of territories.

In what is described as a major boost to South Africa’s digital and AI capabilities, Touchnet, a business-to-business-focused internet service provider, in collaboration with global cloud provider Zadara, has officially launched a sovereign AI cloud infrastructure at Digital Parks Africa’s advanced, carrier-neutral Uptime Tier III Design Certified Data Centre in Samrand in the Gauteng province.

Qatar and the UAE have new sovereign cloud services following separate launches this week from Ooredoo and du that promise a local alternative to international cloud service providers.

Ericsson said on Wednesday it has struck an agreement with Latvian telco Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT) to modernize its subscriber domain infrastructure to support its planned deployment of standalone 5G.

Arkan Solutions, a provider of cloud communication services and session border controller as a service (SBCaaS) across the Middle East and globally, has announced the successful go-live of its PSTN integration service for international express shipping service DHL Express in Kuwait, Qatar and Jordan, in collaboration with British Telecom (BT).

AIS Business said on Thursday that it has launched what it says is Thailand’s first locally-based hyperscale cloud service using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to support AI workloads for public and private organizations.

Robi Axiata’s digital services subsidiary Axentec announced on Tuesday it has launched what it says is the first Tier-IV cloud platform fully hosted and operated in Bangladesh that promises data sovereignty for local enterprises.

Cloud networking and security-as-a-service provider GTT Communications says it has expanded its global Tier 1 IP backbone in nine more countries in the Latin America and Asia Pacific regions.

A reminder of the growing emphasis from governments on ensuring that local data stays within their borders comes from Azerbaijan, where edge AI, cloud, network, and security solutions provider Gcore has announced a strategic partnership with state-owned service provider AzInTelecom.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced plans to embed its cloud technology within Orange’s mobile networks in Morocco and Senegal this year, aiming to significantly improve connectivity speed and reduce latency.

Magalu Cloud, a cloud computing services platform, and data centres and connectivity company Ascenty, have committed to continuing a partnership to support the digital transformation of Brazil’s retail sector.

Solomon Islands operator Our Telekom is partnering with Oracle for an end-to-end digital transformation initiative.

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Government Enablement has announced an agreement with Microsoft and Core42, a G42 company specialising in sovereign cloud, AI infrastructure and digital services. G42 is an artificial intelligence development company based in Abu Dhabi.

Tencent Cloud and TrueWatch have announced a partnership to launch what is said to be Indonesia's first multi-cloud SaaS observability platform.

PLDT’s mobile arm Smart Communications announced at Mobile World Congress 2025 on Thursday it is collaborating with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to power Smart’s strategy to boost customer experiences with AI-powered applications.