Doha, April 06 (QNA) - HE Minister of Transport and Communications (MOTC) Jassim Saif Ahmed Al Sulaiti announced Tuesday the completion of construction and infrastructure work required for three data centers for Microsoft's Azure.
This came during a ceremony organized by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, via video conference, in partnership with Microsoft to celebrate the one-year anniversary on the achievement of cloud migration. The ceremony saw Charge d'Affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Qatar Greta Holtz take part, along with a number of ranking officials at government institutions.
HE the Minister of Transport and Communications said in a speech that the State of Qatar, represented in the ministry, held a strategic partnership with Microsoft to establish data centers and be a national platform for cloud services in Qatar. His Excellency added that Qatar's wise leadership is committed to invest in cloud computing in order to be a regional hub for communications and information technology and for investors in that field. The partnership was announced a little over a year ago and stated that Microsoft will build a regional hub for Azure in Qatar.
His Excellency said that the presence of such a center in the State of Qatar will encourage local companies to benefit from that investment and integrate it to serve the market, which will in turn help increase GDP and contribute to realizing Qatar's goal of building a knowledge-based society.
HE the minister said that they succeeded, in partnership with local companies, to build three data centers that are in-line with Microsoft's standards. He added that construction work took into account the importance of using clean energy and limiting Carbon emissions. HE the Minister added that work is ongoing to ensure the centers are linked together using fiber optics, to ensure the availability of data at all times. His Excellency said that the Azure-Qatar center will begin operations in the first quarter of 2022.
His Excellency said that the ministry remained committed to the directives of HH the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, under the supervision of HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, in focusing on human capital and launched a training program for Azure's different technologies. His Excellency noted that the program saw hundreds of government employees get training at different levels.
HE the Minister of Transport and Communications stressed that Qatar's ambition is sky-high to realize Qatar National Vision 2030 and its pillars. He called on local companies to focus on the vision when placing their strategies of expanding outside the Qatari market. His Excellency added that the ministry aspires to find Qatari tech offered on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, and accessed by users all over the world. 

In her remarks, Acting Assistant Undersecretary of Government Information Technology, MOTC, Mashael Ali Al Hammadi, said that the fast-paced advancement in the field of IT and the growing desire for processes automation are prompting people to look for e-services before they think of physically visiting a government office to do their transaction manually, something which created a major motivation for us to adopt the cloud comes first' principle so we did not wait until construction works are finalized, but directly went ahead and started working with the government entities interested in moving to the cloud and now at least 56 government and semi-government entities and public sector businesses have established their new services and are migrating their existing ones to the cloud.
"In the one year anniversary of the announcement of Azure Qatar, we recognize the progress and achievements of organizations who utilized Azure Qatar and the Microsoft Global Cloud to accelerate digital transformation, drive business continuity and resiliency navigating successfully through these unprecedented times to respond and recover from the challenges of the pandemic, to reimagine the future and innovate in the new normal.  This wouldn't be possible without the strong and lasting partnership  with the Ministry of Transport and communications. Our ongoing partnership with the Ministry of Transport and Communications reflects the extent of our firm commitment to advance the country's sustainable development strategy and Qatar Vision 2030," said Lana Khalaf, Country Manager of Microsoft Qatar.
On the sidelines of the event, several entities have been recognized and honored for overcoming the current challenges under the COVID-19 situation and for being able to keep pace with the new normal, using Microsoft cloud technologies, based on special evaluation criteria relating to innovation, cost optimization and crisis response.
    Winning entities in the five categories are: Crisis Response: Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the health sector represented by Ministry of Public Health, Hamad Medical Corporation and Primary Health Care Corporation; Industry Innovation: Al Jazeera; Business Continuity: Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs; Born on Cloud: Qatar Free Zones Authority; Cost Optimization: MOTC. (QNA)