Orange Maroc has signed three technology partnerships aimed at helping businesses and public administrations use cloud computing, artificial intelligence and smarter networks. The agreements were announced on 8 October at the eighth Assises de l’AUSIM in Tangier. The event ran from 7 to 9 October under the theme “AImpowering: through Innovation, Intelligence and Sovereignty”. Orange Maroc was a Diamond Sponsor and technology partner.
The first agreement, with Red Hat, will support Orange Maroc’s sovereign cloud platform, including cloud-native technologies and enterprise AI.
A second partnership with RUCKUS will focus on next-generation wired and wireless networks, AI-driven network assurance and managed services.
The third, with Axis Communications, will bring Edge AI and smart-vision technology to sectors including smart industry, retail, transport and smart buildings.
“Businesses are no longer looking simply for technological solutions: they need a partner capable of understanding their challenges, mobilizing the right expertise, and supporting them end-to-end in their transformation. Our ambition is to make Orange Maroc the technology partner capable of orchestrating the entire transformation of businesses, from connectivity right through to AI,” said Mohamed Bennis, B2B Sales Director at Orange Maroc.
Bennis was speaking at a plenary session on the successes and failures of AI projects.
Orange Maroc currently serves 18.8 million customers and employs around 1,300 people. Company executives said the partnerships were part of a wider effort to build a sovereign, innovative and sustainable digital ecosystem.
Red Hat, founded in 1993 and headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, provides open-source software for businesses. It became an independent subsidiary of IBM after its $34bn acquisition by the company was completed in July 2019.
Its main products include Red Hat Enterprise Linux, OpenShift, Ansible Automation Platform and enterprise AI platforms. Its subscription model gives customers technical support, security fixes, long-term updates and integration services.
Red Hat also supports open-source projects including Fedora, the upstream project for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, OKD, the upstream project for OpenShift, and projects within the Cloud Native Computing Foundation ecosystem.
RUCKUS, founded as Ruckus Wireless in 2004, develops wired and wireless networking products and network-management software. It was acquired by CommScope in 2019.
Its technology includes BeamFlex+, which adapts wireless signals to improve performance in difficult environments, and ChannelFly, which uses machine learning to select network channels based on capacity and interference.
Its products include Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 access points, ICX Ethernet switches and RUCKUS One, a cloud-managed platform offering automated diagnostics and network assurance.
Axis Communications, a Swedish network technology company, invented the first network camera in 1996. Based in Lund, Sweden, it operates as an independent subsidiary of the Canon Group following its acquisition by Canon in 2015.
The company specialises in physical security, video surveillance and intelligent vision. Its Edge AI technology allows cameras to process and analyse video locally rather than sending large amounts of raw footage to a central cloud or recording system.
Axis cameras can use onboard deep-learning processors to identify objects and behaviours, such as people and vehicles. Local processing can reduce delays, limit network traffic and keep raw video data on the device.
Its product range includes high-definition, thermal, panoramic and pan-tilt-zoom network cameras, as well as explosion-protected cameras. It also makes IP-based access-control systems, network speakers and intercoms, radar and environmental sensors.
The technology is designed for applications including workplace safety and protective-equipment checks in industry, customer-flow and queue monitoring in retail, building automation, traffic management, licence-plate recognition and logistics monitoring.
The three partnerships bring together cloud infrastructure, network management and AI-based vision as Orange Maroc seeks to expand its role as a technology partner for businesses and public administrations.
