Microsoft Azure UAE Regions launches four new key services to accelerate digital transformation programmes

Azure Purview, Azure Arc enabled servers, Azure Communication Services, and Azure Machine Learning – which cover governance, multi-cloud, comms APIs, and AI – will enable local and regional customers to expand their digital ambitions by providing data residency benefit in the UAE

19 April, 2022; Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Microsoft today announced the availability of a new wave of digitally transformative services on its Azure UAE Regions. These latest services mean that regional Microsoft Cloud customers now have access to almost all of Azure’s tools, allowing them to leverage the full versatility and power of the trusted, intelligent Microsoft Cloud to accelerate their digital transformations.

“When we launched Microsoft Cloud Regions in 2019, we saw an immediate acceleration in digital transformation across the region,” said Necip Ozyucel, Director, Azure Business Group Lead, Microsoft UAE. “At the time, we pledged to continue expanding and improving our services to feed the region’s appetite for all things digital. Now that journey continues with the launch of Azure Purview, Azure Arc enabled servers, Azure Communication Services, and Azure Machine Learning in our Azure UAE Regions . Governance, multi-cloud, open communications, and Artificial Intelligence are vital components of the post-COVID rush in digitisation and we are pleased to provide our regional customers with four category-leading services to enable them to engage, empower, optimise and transform.”

Azure Purview is a unified data-governance solution that allows organisations to manage the use of their on-premises, multi-cloud, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) data. The service enables the creation of a holistic, up-to-date map of the entire data landscape through automated data discovery. Stakeholders can impose policies on sensitive data by formally classifying it and maintaining an audit trail of its use.

Azure Arc is a suite of technologies that unites the security of Microsoft Azure with its cloud-native services to bring rich, secure functionality to hybrid and multi-cloud environments.  Azure Arc enabled servers enables management of Windows and Linux physical servers and virtual machines hosted outside of Azure, on-premises, or other cloud providers. This management experience is designed to be consistent with how Azure VMs are managed, using standard Azure constructs such as Azure Policy and applying tags.

Azure Communication Services is a set of rich communication APIs – including those for video and SMS – that allow the deployment of applications on any device or platform. Each API allows custom integration with Microsoft Teams, which means app developers can deliver rich video, voice, chat, text-messaging, and telephony experiences to anywhere their end-users may be, across applications, websites, and mobile platforms.

Azure Machine Learning allows enterprises to build business-critical machine-learning models at scale. Data scientists and developers can collaborate on the development, deployment, and management of responsible, high-quality models while accelerating time to value, by leveraging industry-leading MLOps (machine learning operations), open-source interoperability, and integrated tools.

Azure Purview, Azure Arc enabled servers, Azure Communication Services, and Azure Machine Learning are all now available through Microsoft’s UAE Cloud Regions. All four services are leaders in their category in the enablement of leading-edge digital solutions.

“Microsoft’s UAE cloud regions have been accelerating digital transformation for almost three years now, bringing the latest technologies to the region’s innovators, taking the complexity out of compliance for regulated industries, and connecting customers to the world through our more than 60 Azure regions around the globe. Organizations in the UAE have been benefiting data residency enabled by Azure UAE regions almost three years. while they have option to leverage the global Azure infrastructure.” added Necip.

“Through our UAE Cloud Regions, we partnered with several critical-infrastructure, life-and-safety, and healthcare organisations during the pandemic. Today, as many enterprises are leveraging hybrid and multi-cloud environments, we offer Azure Arc, which is tailor-made for the management of such ecosystems. And Purview enables unified data governance aligned with Arc`s approach by embracing on-premises and multi cloud. And last but not the least Azure Machine Learning to accelerate UAE`s AI vision with the help of advanced AI capabilities. We are just getting started; Microsoft is committed to bringing the latest innovations to our cloud customers, so stay tuned for more exciting announcements soon.”