Google Cloud Launches New Region In Qatar To Serve Growing Middle East Customer Base

Google Cloud launches new region in Qatar to serve growing Middle East customer base

Google Cloud symbol displayed at their headquarters in Silicon Valley; South San Francisco bay area

The Qatar National Vision 2030 intends to convert the country into an advanced society capable of achieving sustainable development and securing a high standard of living for generations to come. The Government of Qatar has affirmed that digital transformation is critical to achieving the national vision, assisting in fostering a knowledge-based economy and transitioning to smart cities.

As more businesses and people in Qatar take advantage of the opportunities that technology and digitisation can provide, Google Cloud is prepared to assist in unlocking new possibilities, right from the heart of Doha. Google has announced the addition of a second cloud availability region in the Middle East, located in Doha, to meet the growing demand from Qatar’s government and enterprises in the region.

“The new cloud region is a significant step towards building regional capacity that meets the needs of Qatar’s digital economy, from availability and data residency to digital sovereignty and sustainability”, according to Google Cloud’s country manager for Qatar, Ghassan Kosta. The new region, which will offer Google Cloud services such as Compute Engine, Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, Google Kubernetes Engine, and Spanner at launch, will provide three availability zones for more capacity and protection against disruptions.

Google’s other existing cloud region in the Middle East, called me-west1 and located in Tel Aviv offers three availability zones for services such as compute, storage, security, and AI. The new Doha region adds to Google Cloud’s total cloud region count, bringing it to 37 regions and 112 availability zones.

Google has been making significant investments in opening new cloud regions to compete with bigger rivals like AWS and Microsoft. In October of last year, Google announced plans to launch new regions in Austria, Greece, Norway, South Africa, and Sweden to complement the new regions announced in August for New Zealand, Malaysia, Thailand, and Mexico.

Rival public cloud services providers, including Microsoft and Oracle, have also revealed their intentions to expand their cloud region footprint. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced in July 2022 that the company would launch ten new cloud regions over the following year. Similarly, Oracle CEO Safra Catz stated in June 2022 that the company expected to add another six regions in the next year, and it launched two of these new sovereign regions in the European Union the following month.

The formal launch event for the region on May 22 will coincide with the company’s annual cloud summit, Google Cloud Next.