Kuwait's Zain Group selected as a preferred partner to the Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute Program

Kuwait - Zain Group, a leading mobile telecom innovator in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, announces that its fully owned global services subsidiary, Mada Communications, has been granted Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute Program status. This permits Zain to deliver innovative Microsoft software and cloud experiences to enterprises across its expansive IP/MPLS network.

Microsoft's Azure ExpressRoute allows corporates to create private connections between Azure data centers and infrastructure on-premises or in a colocation environment. These connections do not go over the public Internet, thus offering greater reliability, faster speeds, lower latencies, and higher security than typical Internet connections. In some cases, using ExpressRoute connections to transfer data between on-premises systems and Azure has been known to yield drastic cost benefits.

Zain's state-of-the art owned and operated, resilient IP/MPLS network spans the Middle East, Europe, the Far East and the US, connecting through network-to-network interface (NNI) arrangements with major world partners. Through its latest partnership with Microsoft, Zain will now be able to offer connections from its corporate users to one of the world's industry-leading cloud platforms - Microsoft Azure.

As part of the agreement Zain Group will also be able to bring customers onto Microsoft Azure through its Zain Global Network, providing them with seamless, secure and reliable dedicated private network connectivity.

Commenting on the partnership, Henri Kassab, Henri Kassab, Managing Director, International, Wholesale & Roaming at Zain Group said, "Microsoft's trust in Zain validates the investment we have and continue to make in our IP/MPLS network, with our motivation for such developments being the offer of the best possible quality of service to our customers. Our network ranks among the largest internet/DATA providers in the Middle East with 760+ Gbps peak traffic . Hence we are enthusiastic about the enhanced convenience, connectivity and product portfolio we will be offering customers by our inclusion into the ExpressRoute program."

Charles Nahas, General Manager, Microsoft Kuwait commented, "Charles Nahas, General Manager, Microsoft Kuwait commented, "Zain Group is one of the leading communications operators in the Middle East, and our relationship with them will help expand the range and reliability of the services they offer to customers. Reliable, resilient connectivity is the cornerstone of development for economies and societies. ExpressRoute has been tailored for large-scale service provision, delivering for Microsoft Azure Cloud customers enhanced security, reliability, low latency and flexibility of scale allowing for compute and storage capacities as needed. This latest relationship between Zain and Microsoft will empower customers to be more productive, supported by leading-edge bespoke connectivity offerings."

Zain Group has identified the enterprise segment as a core strategic focus for the operator, and through Mada Communications, the operator continues to work towards providing seamless, differentiated multi-services to enterprise and corporates. Zain remains committed to providing best-in-class services to its client base and this latest agreement with Microsoft is a further demonstration of this unwavering commitment. Ends

About Zain Group:
Zain is a leading telecommunications operator across the Middle East and Africa, providing mobile voice and data services to over 45.2 million active customers as of 30 June, 2016. With a commercial presence in 8 countries, Zain operates in: Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and South Sudan. In Lebanon, the Group manages 'touch' on behalf of the government. In Morocco, Zain has a 15.5% stake in 'INWI', through a joint venture. Zain is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (stock ticker: ZAIN).

For more, please email info@zain.com  or visit: www.zain.com; www.facebook.com/zain; www.twitter.com/zain; www.youtube.com/zain; www.instagram.com/zaingroup; www.linkedin.com/company/zain

© Press Release 2016