Oracle has announced today its plans to open two public cloud regions in Morocco, becoming the first major cloud service provider to establish a presence in North Africa. These new regions will help accelerate the implementation of Morocco’s digital government initiatives and drive digital transformation for organizations across Africa.
The new public cloud regions, located in Casablanca and Settat, will enable Oracle customers and partners to migrate critical workloads from their data centers to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). This will help them comply with local regulations, access a wide range of cloud services to modernize their applications, and innovate with artificial intelligence, data, and analytics.
The initiative underscores Oracle’s commitment to Africa and is designed to foster digital transformation for businesses, startups, universities, and investors in Morocco and the region.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish the two cloud regions was signed by Mr. Mohcine Jazouli, Delegate Minister to the Head of Government in charge of Investment, Convergence, and Public Policy Evaluation; Ms. Ghita Mezzour, Delegate Minister to the Head of Government in charge of Digital Transition and Administrative Reform; Mr. Ali Seddiki, General Director of the Moroccan Agency for Investment and Export Development (AMDIE); and Oracle leaders during GITEX Africa 2024.
“The opening of Oracle’s public cloud in Morocco will accelerate digital transformation throughout the region,” stated Ms. Ghita Mezzour. “This strategic expansion positions Morocco as a unique player in the region, enabling a more dynamic development of skills and growth opportunities.”
Richard Smith, Executive Vice President of Technology for EMEA at Oracle, highlighted the growth potential that Morocco offers: “As one of Africa’s largest economies, and with strong business and cultural connections to West Africa, the Maghreb, and Europe, Morocco offers unique growth opportunities for companies looking to accelerate their expansion through the deployment of the latest digital technologies.”
The new cloud regions will offer enterprise-grade cloud capabilities, helping organizations quickly deliver new solutions, build resilience, and explore new markets. Additionally, these regions will be crucial for modernizing Moroccan public services, improving citizen services.
OCI is the only major-scale cloud services provider offering a complete suite of over 100 cloud services, including autonomous databases, MySQL HeatWave database services, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, and Oracle Cloud VMware solutions. This unique architecture allows Oracle to deploy dedicated cloud regions with large-scale services within customer data centers and rapidly expand new public cloud regions.
With the new regions in Morocco, customers and partners will be able to access low-latency cloud services, enhance business continuity, and comply with local data residency regulations. Additionally, OCI’s sovereign AI capabilities provide greater control over the location and management of data and computing infrastructure, ensuring that AI usage aligns with digital sovereignty frameworks.
Mr. Mohcine Jazouli emphasized the importance of this investment: “We warmly welcome Oracle’s investment on Moroccan soil, underscoring a strong confidence in the expertise and talent of Moroccan youth. This initiative positions Morocco prominently on the international digital stage, showcasing our capabilities and readiness to lead in the global digital economy.”
Oracle’s new public cloud regions in Morocco represent a significant step in the digital transformation of the country and the entire region, offering advanced and secure solutions to meet the challenges of the future.