MTN has successfully completed the migration of its Enterprise Value Analytics platform to Microsoft Azure, creating what the telecommunications giant describes as the largest telco cloud implementation across the Middle East and Africa. The modernized EVA 3.0 system now processes 22 billion data records daily while driving operational efficiency and customer experience innovation across MTN’s markets.
The upgraded platform, built on Azure Databricks and protected by Microsoft Defender, runs more than 800 analytics workflows drawn from over 1,700 data feeds. The migration represents a breakthrough in speed, scalability, and security, giving MTN real-time insights into service performance and customer behavior that enable the company to resolve issues faster and design more relevant products.
Our customers expect reliability, relevance, and responsiveness in every interaction with us, said Nikos Angelopoulos, MTN Group Chief Information Officer. Understanding our vast amounts of data and extracting meaningful insights in a timely manner has always been central to how we deliver that experience. With EVA 3.0, we’re expanding those capabilities.
The platform forms the analytics backbone of MTN’s digital operations, transforming how the company interprets and applies data across its 19 markets. Beyond the initial implementation in South Africa, EVA 3.0 serves as a replicable model for data modernization throughout the MTN Group, setting what industry observers call a new standard for digital transformation in Africa’s telecommunications sector.
MTN’s adoption of Azure for its analytics backbone demonstrates what’s possible when global technology and local expertise work together, said Alkis Flemetakis, Telco Account Director at Microsoft. This collaboration is unlocking deeper insights, strengthening data protection, and accelerating digital transformation across the continent.
The technical architecture behind EVA 3.0 reflects modern cloud-native design principles. Azure Databricks provides the computational framework for processing massive daily data volumes, while Delta Lake enables ACID transactions and efficient incremental processing. Microsoft Defender integration offers centralized security controls for protecting sensitive customer and network telemetry.
Processing 22 billion records each day requires sophisticated data ingestion capabilities. The platform pulls information from network probes, call detail records, operational support systems, business support systems, and application telemetry through both streaming and batch collection methods. This vast information flow gets stored in Azure Data Lake Storage before being transformed through Spark jobs and analytics pipelines.
The system’s 800-plus analytics workflows orchestrate everything from real-time streaming analytics to machine learning model training. Teams can now detect service degradation earlier, understand customer behavior patterns faster, and deliver more personalized experiences based on predictive insights. The speed improvements compared to the previous platform have been described as significant, though specific performance benchmarks haven’t been publicly disclosed.
Rick Lievano, Microsoft’s Worldwide Chief Technology Officer for Telecommunications, highlighted the broader industry implications of such deployments. Artificial intelligence and big data analytics are at the heart of telco transformation, he noted, enabling operators to optimize networks, enhance resilience, and create new value through predictive and personalised services.
What distinguishes MTN’s approach is the parallel investment in human capability alongside technology infrastructure. The migration is supported by MTN Group’s Cloud Centre of Excellence and a continent-wide engineering network that achieved more Microsoft Azure certifications in 2025 than any other organization in Africa. With over 1,350 certifications attained to date, the milestone underscores MTN’s sustained commitment to cloud expertise and developing Africa’s next generation of digital talent.
The certification push addresses one of cloud migration’s most persistent challenges: the skills gap that often stalls or derails modernization projects. By building deep Azure expertise across its engineering teams, MTN reduced operational risks during the transition and created capabilities needed to run and evolve the platform over time.
The strategic partnership between MTN and Microsoft extends beyond this single project. The companies announced their cloud-first alliance in 2022, positioning Azure as MTN’s primary public cloud partner for transforming both core network functions and enterprise analytics platforms. Multiple proof-of-concept initiatives followed, including early 5G core experiments, as part of that longer program.
Industry analysts view the EVA 3.0 deployment as a blueprint worth studying, both for its technical achievements and the organizational transformation it represents. The project demonstrates that large-scale telco cloud modernization in Africa is feasible when backed by proper governance, skills investment, and strategic partnerships. However, experts also note important questions about long-term platform economics, data sovereignty controls, and the complexity of operating at such scale.
The architecture choices align with what industry observers describe as best practices for large analytical workloads and AI productization. Using Azure’s managed services reduces infrastructure management overhead, allowing MTN teams to focus on extracting business value rather than maintaining underlying systems. The lakehouse architecture built on Delta Lake provides flexibility for both structured and unstructured data analysis.
Security considerations played a central role throughout the migration. Microsoft Defender for Cloud integrates with Azure’s identity and access management systems to provide role-based controls, while data cataloging and lineage tracking help maintain governance over sensitive information. For a telecommunications operator handling millions of customers’ personal data and network telemetry, these safeguards are essential for regulatory compliance and customer trust.
The real-time analytics capabilities enable what telcos call “closed-loop automation,” where systems can detect issues, determine root causes, and implement fixes with minimal human intervention. When network quality degrades in a particular area, EVA 3.0 can identify the affected cells, correlate with other data sources to diagnose problems, and trigger remediation workflows, all within minutes rather than hours or days.
Customer experience improvements extend beyond network operations. The platform’s ability to analyze usage patterns and preferences at scale allows MTN to design more relevant product offerings, personalize marketing communications, and predict which customers might be at risk of churning. These capabilities directly translate to revenue opportunities through better targeting and retention.
From a business perspective, the migration supports MTN’s ambition to lead digital solutions for Africa’s progress. Angelopoulos emphasized that the collaboration with Microsoft demonstrates how global partnerships can translate into local impact, ensuring that Africa’s digital future is built on intelligence, trust, and connectivity.
The platform’s design as a replicable blueprint matters significantly for MTN’s broader operations. Rather than each market building custom analytics solutions, the EVA 3.0 model can be adapted and deployed across operating companies, reducing duplicate engineering effort and accelerating time to value. This standardization also facilitates knowledge sharing and best practice exchange among engineering teams across markets.
Economic considerations played into the decision to migrate. While cloud platforms involve ongoing operational expenses rather than upfront capital investments, they offer financial flexibility and eliminate costs associated with maintaining on-premises data centers. The ability to scale resources up or down based on demand provides optimization opportunities, though operators must carefully manage usage to control costs at the scale MTN operates.
Data sovereignty represents an important consideration for telecommunications operators handling sensitive customer information. While Azure offers data residency options that keep information within specific geographic boundaries, the details of how MTN has structured these controls haven’t been publicly disclosed. Industry experts note that clear contractual guarantees around data access, residency, and compliance are essential for such deployments.
The vendor partnership model raises questions about long-term flexibility. Deep integration with Azure-specific services like managed Databricks, Unity Catalog, and Defender tooling creates what some analysts call “technical gravity” that increases the complexity and cost of potentially moving to alternative cloud platforms in the future. However, the immediate capability gains may outweigh these longer-term strategic considerations.
MTN’s investment in training and certifying more than 1,350 engineers on Azure frameworks demonstrates recognition that technology alone doesn’t guarantee successful transformation. The people and processes surrounding the platform determine whether organizations can effectively operationalize new capabilities and extract sustained business value from their cloud investments.
The telecommunications industry globally has been shifting from siloed, on-premises analytics systems toward unified, cloud-native data platforms that power real-time operations, personalization, and artificial intelligence. Microsoft and other hyperscale cloud providers have positioned this transition around two connected promises: massive scale for telemetry processing and integrated security with governance frameworks for using sensitive data responsibly.
MTN’s multi-year cloud strategy, internally known as Project Nephos, created the Cloud Centre of Excellence specifically to drive consistent capability across operating companies. This centralized approach helps avoid the fragmentation that can occur when individual markets pursue independent technology strategies without coordination.
The emphasis on responsible AI deployment reflects growing awareness that powerful analytical capabilities require ethical guardrails. While specific details about MTN’s AI governance frameworks haven’t been extensively publicized, the stated commitment to responsible deployment suggests consideration of issues like algorithmic fairness, transparency, and accountability in automated decision-making systems.
For Africa’s broader digital transformation, MTN’s successful migration carries symbolic as well as practical significance. It demonstrates that African telecommunications operators can deploy cutting-edge cloud and analytics infrastructure at global scale, building homegrown technical capability rather than relying entirely on external expertise. The continent-leading Azure certification numbers underscore this capability development.
The project’s completion during 2025 positions MTN advantageously as artificial intelligence applications in telecommunications mature. Having a robust data foundation with real-time processing capabilities provides the infrastructure needed to deploy increasingly sophisticated AI models for network optimization, customer service automation, fraud detection, and predictive maintenance.
Looking ahead, the true measure of EVA 3.0’s success will emerge over months and years as MTN operationalizes the platform across additional markets and quantifies business impacts. Key metrics to watch include customer satisfaction scores, network reliability improvements, operational cost reductions, and revenue growth from data-driven product innovations.
Independent performance validation would strengthen confidence in the deployment’s achievements. While the headline metrics around daily record processing and workflow counts are impressive, third-party benchmarking and audited results would provide additional credibility for organizations considering similar migrations.
The collaboration between MTN and Microsoft illustrates how Africa’s digital infrastructure is increasingly being built through partnerships between continental operators with deep local knowledge and global technology providers with advanced platforms. Whether this model proves optimal compared to more regionally-developed solutions remains an open question as Africa’s technology ecosystem continues maturing.
For MTN’s millions of subscribers across Africa, the technical complexity of cloud migrations and analytics platforms remains largely invisible. What matters to customers is whether their calls connect reliably, their data works consistently, and the services they purchase meet their needs at reasonable prices. EVA 3.0’s ultimate success depends on translating technical capabilities into tangible improvements in these everyday experiences.
As Angelopoulos noted, the work represents more than a technology upgrade. It’s about building systems that strengthen Africa’s digital economy, improve reliability, deepen inclusion, and create opportunities across the continent. Whether EVA 3.0 delivers on that ambitious vision will become clearer as the platform matures and MTN extends it throughout its African footprint.
