The battle for cloud computing is heating up in the Middle East region. Google Cloud is opening the first Middle East region, expanding their cloud infrastructure to many more countries.
The launch is being done as a strategic collaboration agreement with the Qatar Free Zone Authority (QFZA). The Middle East region is one of the many new regions announced by the cloud services provider, which will expand the current 67 zones present in 16 countries.
Beefing up Google Cloud services
Each region will have three zones to protect against service disruptions, launch with a portfolio of key GCP products, and offer lower latency to nearby users. Given Google’s commitment to sustainability, expect them to work closely with their strategic partners to help fulfil the promise.
This will allow new and existing customers, as well as partners, to run their workloads locally. The main benefits will be workloads being processed with lower latency and better performance.
QFZA is closely collaborating with the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) to provide opportunities for cloud computing to businesses in Qatar and promote other digital initiatives through the TASMU program.
No specific date has been announced after contacting the Google Cloud press team; it’s going to be a race on who brings it online first. Microsoft Azure’s datacenter in Qatar is slated to be partially running sometime in 2021. It would be in the best interest for Google Cloud to have it partially up and running first.
Don’t expect this to be the only one in the Middle East region. As market demand grows for cloud services, we could see more regions added in new markets across the Middle East.
If you’re looking to signup to Google Cloud, no better time to start right here.
Image credits: Press room and Blog