Microsoft has announced a cloud deal in Brazil and a virtual conferencing facility agreement in Kenya.
A Microsoft Brazil Southeast cloud region in Rio de Janeiro will launch in 2021. The Azure region will support cloud applications for mission-critical workloads with high availability.
Microsoft will train around 5.5 million citizens in how to use its systems. The company has also announced that it will use AI applications to protect the Amazon rainforest from deforestation.
Microsoft launched its first data centre region in São Paulo State in 2014. Since then, Microsoft’s partner ecosystem in Brazil has grown to encompass 25,000 businesses across key Brazilian industries.
Meanwhile in Kenya, the country’s leading operator Safaricom has joined Microsoft in announcing the launch of a virtual conferencing facility that enables hotels to host meetings.
The business-to-business product is called Revmeet. Its launch follows a month-and-a-half-long pilot in which eight facilities in Nairobi and Mombasa were used for hosting parallel groups attending the same meeting.
Microsoft representatives said its virtual product was encrypted to provide a secure platform for one-on-one interactions for specific meetings.
Revmeet costs Sh10,000 (US$91.88) for an up-to-two-hour session, Sh15,000 for up to five hours and Sh20,000 for a day-long virtual session.
Companies’ annual general meetings as well as training sessions can now be held across Kenya via the Revmeet platform with attendees who are booked in hotels that have invested in IT platforms that support virtual conferencing.
