Microsoft announced a number of Azure Availability Zones in Dubai which will enhance the competitiveness and resilience of UAE businesses through business continuity and disaster recovery solutions.

Naim Yazbeck, General Manager of Microsoft UAE, said: “With the advent of the always-on economy, uptime and continuous access to critical data, applications and workloads have become front-of-mind concerns for the region’s technology stakeholders.”

He added: “As businesses move forward amid increased industry upheavals and competition from market disrupters, competitiveness hinges on the ability to remain operational even as external issues destabilise markets and supply chains. Backups alone will not deliver such capabilities. Rapid recovery requires strategy-focused infrastructure and solutions to work effectively. That is what Azure Availability Zones delivers.”

Azure Availability Zones will build on the capabilities offered through Microsoft’s enterprise-grade data centers in Dubai, which began operations in June 2019. A number of corporations have migrated to Microsoft Azure Availability Zones in the UAE, including Emirates Group, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Mashreq Bank, and First Abu Dhabi Bank.

Srinivasan Sampath, Acting Group Chief Technology Officer of First Abu Dhabi Bank, comments: “As an organisation, we believe in the power of technology to deliver a smarter and more agile customer experience as well as enable our people to be dynamic and remain ahead of developments in our industry.”

He added: “The new availability zones will allow us to enhance the way we use Microsoft Cloud, offering us a greater level of data security, resilience and flexibility, which in turn, will support our customer-centric ethos, and allow us to provide greater benefits for our clients.”