Egypt has launched its first government data and cloud computing center.
Inaugurated on April 28 by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the data hub will serve as a central repository for all ministry data.
The facility will enable undefined artificial intelligence technology to be deployed across governmental operations including data analysis applications to help with decision-making, and will act as a centralized national data and disaster recovery center.
The new Government Data and Cloud Computing Center will also serve as an alternative to the New Capital Data Center.
The data center is located along the Ain Sokhna highway and spans more than 23,500 sqm (252,952 sq ft) of which 10,000 sqm (107,639 sq ft) houses current infrastructure, the rest is reserved for future expansion.
The facility includes administration, operation, and insurance facilities, space for cloud computing equipment, a hall for technical solutions and AI applications, and an interchange control center for the National Emergency Network.
The data center project was developed with the help of more than 15 local and international companies, and more than 1,200 engineers and workers over 5,000 hours.
Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said of the project: "The state spent billions of dollars in order to prepare an integrated infrastructure in this regard and the opening of the Government Data and Cloud Computing Center today prepares Egypt to take its place in a world that is progressing rapidly in an accelerating pace.”
Previously, Egypt has stored much of its data abroad, but the country is looking to localize it. Government ministries also had separate servers for their operations, meaning that they could not interact with those of other ministries. Now they will be housed within one main data center.
According to the president, Egypt must take advantage of the country's strategic location with many of the world's subsea cables passing through the country and connecting the East and West of the globe.
In 2022, President Sisi launched the "Egypt Digital Platform" which now has 170 government services registered with it, providing services to around eight million citizens.
In 2021, Orange was set to build a $135m data center in Egypt's New Administrative Capital which would host all the smart city platforms of the area which resides just east of Cairo, the current capital city of Egypt.
Orange states that this data center launched "recently," though it is unclear if the project is connected. DCD has contacted Orange Egypt to clarify. Orange also has a data center in Alexandria.
Towards the end of last year, the UAE's Ministry of Investment and the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Egypt signed an agreement to invest in Egypt's digital infrastructure and develop up to 1GW of data center capacity in the country.
In May 2023, UAE firm Khazna Data Centers announced that it would build a data center in Cairo, Egypt. That same month GPX Global Systems said it would expand its Cairo 2 data center, almost quadrupling its IT capacity.
