Microsoft to Launch New Cloud Region in Saudi Arabia

Microsoft will launch a new cloud data center region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

In a statement published on Monday (Feb. 7), Microsoft said it is investing in infrastructure in the country “in response to growing customer demand for cloud services and data residency in Saudi Arabia from global enterprises, local businesses, and civilian public sector organizations.”

Commenting on the announcement, Samer Abu-Ltaif, corporate vice president and president, Microsoft Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, said, “the new data center region will provide organizations, enterprises, and developers in the Kingdom and around the world with access to scalable, highly available, and resilient cloud services while addressing their data residency, security, privacy, and compliance needs.”

Saudi Arabia’s Vice Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Haitham bin Abdul Rahman Al-Ohali added, “the data center will [provide] huge opportunities for startups and small and medium enterprises looking to enhance their competitiveness and leverage the advancements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to develop innovative solutions.”

Pointing to an IDC study it sponsored, Microsoft said the arrival of a new cloud region in KSA “will play a significant role in driving economic growth,” and will generate around $24 billion in new revenues for the tech company and its partners over the next four years.

With cloud giants like Microsoft increasingly bolstering their presence in the region, KSA is not the only country in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) building out its cloud infrastructure.

As PYMNTS has reported, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is also targeting so-called “hyperscale” cloud computing in a bid to boost its digital economy.

Off the back of receiving its own Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud region and new Azure availability zones in 2022, in January, a new cloud business group was formed in Dubai to help cultivate the Emirate’s burgeoning cloud ecosystem.

In a press release announcing the launch of the new group, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce said that startups and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the UAE are expected to gain a total of $17.1 billion in economic benefits from hyperscale cloud computing by 2030.

For all PYMNTS EMEA coverage, subscribe to the daily EMEA Newsletter.