Vodacom says it will be one of the first telcos to go to market with a full suite of Microsoft Azure services when it launches solutions to customers in June.
Fatima Hassim, managing executive for Products and Services at Vodacom Business explains that Microsoft Azure is one of the leading industry cloud platforms that enables developers and IT professionals to create, manage and deploy applications through Microsoft’s global network of data centres.
“Microsoft Azure is the most trusted public cloud platform used by 90% of Fortune 500 companies. The platform enables businesses to build anything from simple mobile apps through to Internet-scale solutions,” Hassim says. “Vodacom’s offering of Microsoft Azure, will allow businesses the ability to provide enterprise-proven hybrid cloud solutions, and offer customers access to professional services that will be readily available to provide the best approach and solutions on the platform to allow customers to maximise efficiencies.”
From a Vodacom perspective, Hassim says the launch of the suite of Microsoft Azure solutions compliments the Vodacom Enterprise’s vision to help accelerate the digital transformation journey for business in South Africa.
“Providing our customers with essential tools and latest offerings in market is vital if they are to survive today’s business landscape. Not only that, but Vodacom’s Azure solution model is simple to adapt and offers a host of application building blocks and services that will allow our customers to customise the cloud according to their needs. Aligning with Vodacom’s bespoke offerings that are tailored to suit customers’ needs,” she adds.
Ravi Bhat, Cloud and Enterprise Business Group lead at Microsoft South Africa says: “Vodacom Business clients can now use Azure to create data-driven, intelligent apps. Whether they want to employ image recognition or bot services, organisations can take advantage of Azure data services and artificial intelligence to create new experiences–that scale–and support deep learning as well as realtime analytics on any shape and size of data. The launch of the cloud platform will provide bespoke solutions aimed at addressing the issues currently being faced by customers’ businesses. Vodacom customers will have access to professional services, provided by experts, who will be readily available to provide the best approach and solutions on the platform to allow customers to maximise on efficiencies and save on costs.”