Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched its first Wavelength Zone Edge location in Africa in partnership with Orange.
“With this first Wavelength Zone in North Africa, Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), enterprises, and developers can now use AWS infrastructure and services to support applications with data residency, low latency, and resiliency requirements," the company said in a statement.
Wavelength embeds AWS compute and storage services at the Edge of communications service providers’ 5G networks. The company says Wavelength minimizes latency and the network hops required to connect from a 5G device to an application hosted on AWS because application traffic can reach servers without leaving the mobile provider's network. Amazon’s compute and storage services are located within the telco providers’ data centers.
Amazon and Orange first announced plans to launch AWS Wavelength Zones in Morocco and Senegal in May 2024.
The AWS hardware will be located in Orange data centers in each market. Amazon’s Paris region is listed as the parent region of the Casablanca zone.
Wavelength Zones were first announced in partnership with Verizon in December 2019, when a pilot project was launched in Los Angeles. Wavelength Zones are now available in 19 US cities in conjunction with the US telco.
The company has also launched zones in the UK with BT and Vodafone, South Korea with SK Telecom, Germany via Vodafone, Japan through KDDI, and Canada with Bell Canada.
Telefónica has previously announced it was trialing a Wavelength Zone in Madrid, Spain, but it has yet to officially launch; Vodafone has said it will also launch a zone in Spain.
Orange operates two data centers in Casablanca. The company acquired a 1MW data center in Casablanca from Etix Everywhere in 2021; the facility, now also known as DC2, was built in 2015.
