"Consolidating data centers will create value for the entire country," — CEO of Freedom Cloud on the development of cloud technologies

Temirlan Zinalabdin, city — Astana, CEO of Freedom Cloud

About Me

I started as a technologist. My first projects appeared when I was 16 years old — it was a project for the company Kazakhmys. At that time, I combined studies and work, and I must say that the level of practical experience and knowledge I gained at work was significantly higher than what could be taught at university.

I studied at KazNU — first in college, then at the university. From the very beginning, I worked on software IT projects, later moving to infrastructure solutions, mainly in telecommunications.

Today, we are developing cloud technologies: building new data centers and expanding cloud services within Kazakhstan, so that data is stored within the country rather than abroad. In general, I have tied my life to IT — I didn’t just work in this field, but was always part of it. Throughout my career, I have worked in various Kazakhstani companies, such as KAZ Minerals, BI Group, Kazakhmys, and others.

About Freedom Cloud’s Role in the Country

Our key advantage is that we build everything within Kazakhstan — for companies engaged in IT business in the country or those needing IT infrastructure. We strive to make these technologies as accessible as possible for them. Keeping infrastructure abroad is expensive. There are communication channels and overhead costs. All of this affects the cost.

There are startups developing their business, the corporate sector with its own standards, and the public sector with special regulatory requirements. This is where we provide significant support.

For us, the main goal is clear — infrastructure development. Without quality infrastructure, development is simply impossible. If it is at a low level and cannot scale, problems will constantly arise. A simple example is electricity. Currently, there is an electricity deficit in the country, which prevents the emergence of new factories, residential areas, and construction projects.

The same applies to the IT sector. Without modern data centers, infrastructure, and fault-tolerant cloud solutions, rapid growth is simply impossible. It is important to develop infrastructure at the national level. Therefore, we propose to the state not only to use our data centers but also to consolidate existing ones — from Kazakhtelecom, Kasteleport, TransTelecom, and others.

Consolidating data centers will help them mutually support each other. Currently, data centers of different players are located in different regions and are poorly interconnected. By creating a nationwide network, we will create value not only for Freedom but for the entire country — in terms of revenue and innovation.

Previously, the country was fully on-premise — this is when companies buy equipment and use it exclusively within their perimeter. Everything is maintained by their own people and servers. The transition to the cloud caused concerns: about data security, fault tolerance, and who would bear responsibility in case of a failure. Many simply did not want to take risks.

Today, a new level of service has formed: cloud technologies have become more secure than on-premise solutions. A simple example is a server in an office. Formally, it can be installed, but an office is not a suitable place: there is no proper cooling, backup power, or resilience to failures. If the power goes out in a business center — the server will shut down, and with it, your business. In the cloud, such risks are lower: everything is built with continuous operation in mind.

The state is already building its own cloud according to unified security and data storage standards. With the growth of AI, the need for powerful, fault-tolerant infrastructure will only increase. Not every company can afford expensive equipment and specialists. However, startups and small companies can use ready-made powerful solutions to focus on product development.

About New Partnerships

We not only help Kazakhstani startups and develop state platforms but also cooperate with major technology companies — such as Google, AWS, Microsoft, Tencent, and other partners.

We have a long-standing history with AWS, which began with the acquisition of AWS Outpost — a solution that allows providing AWS services directly within Kazakhstan. This is a physical server that meets AWS standards, on which the necessary software components for virtualization are deployed. Thus, we use computing power locally. This is important because, by law, personal data cannot be stored abroad, so everything is stored on servers in Kazakhstan.

We became AWS partners and offer their global services to our clients in Kazakhstan. Currently, we are negotiating the launch of AWS technologies within the country. We offered them our infrastructure, data centers, and a new digital corridor from Europe through Turkey and Azerbaijan under the Caspian Sea.

We also have a stable partnership with Microsoft. As Freedom Holding Corp, we actively use their cloud business services Azure as part of Enterprise solutions. So far, these services are mainly used within the holding, but we are ready to offer them to external clients. With Microsoft, we are actively working not only on market development but also on implementing their technologies in Kazakhstan. Microsoft holds a significant market share and provides solutions to many international companies, especially in the oil and gas sector.

We are also in negotiations with Google Cloud. There are partnerships with Huawei — for infrastructure projects, and with Tencent — thanks to which our bank can now accept payments via WeChat. In addition, we work with Redwire, Cloudflare, and implement eBay solutions in Kazakhstan for better availability. With BigTech companies, we are building long-term relationships to be transparent and understandable to them.

We invest not only money but also time, training employees so that we do not simply resell products, but deploy them as our own solutions based on partner technologies.

About the Data Center

Construction has begun in Almaty on the largest and most modern data center in the region — an important step for the development of the country's infrastructure. Almaty is a major city with a developed business and IT sector, where international companies prefer to open offices due to convenience and developed urban infrastructure. This data center is being built as part of a state task — to attract BigTech companies that need modern infrastructure. The project combines a hyperhighway and BigTech landing as part of a digital corridor connecting Europe and China through Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Azerbaijan.

We built the data center for internal needs — it will host services of our companies Freedom Bank, Broker, Insurance, Aviata, Ticketon, and others. In addition, it will become a regional node supporting commercial projects and state programs for digitalization and technology development in partnership with international companies.

The data center is designed for 480 racks with a power of 15 kW each, total IT power — 7.5 MW, and energy consumption — 13 MW. Construction is going on in stages, taking into account customer needs, considering different requirements for cooling and rack sizes.

The main feature of our data center in Almaty is almost 100% fault tolerance. We chose a location in the Big Alatau with a stable tectonic plate, which is important for a seismically active region. An energy hub of Almaty with direct and backup power supply is located nearby, ensuring stable operation even during city-wide failures. The data center is located in the Medeu district, in the foothills of Almaty, outside the city limits, to ensure maximum reliability and availability for clients.

We conduct business based on real needs. In Kazakhstan, there are about 50 large taxpayers — they are the ones who can pay for our services. Clients are different: developers, large construction and production holdings, and the main sector of the country — Oil & Gas. For them, scalable infrastructure and timely processing of data from measuring and telemetry devices are important. We do not just sell services, but offer solutions.

There are clients with modern equipment and their own personnel, for whom cloud solutions are not currently relevant. But there are companies with equipment five to six years old, which are now considering options: to upgrade it or rent modern infrastructure. This audience is our priority, as we offer them modern solutions with high fault tolerance and rapid scalability, where we can create maximum value for business. We work with any industries — small and large business, corporate and state customers — focusing exclusively on customer needs. We have both large and small customers with checks starting from 10,000 tenge. We are not chasing billions, but want to prove the correctness and relevance of our business and infrastructure, offering exactly what the customer needs, rather than just pushing everything indiscriminately.

Plans

We see Freedom Cloud not just as a provider of cloud services. Our mission is deeper — we want to be that technological foundation upon which the digital economy of Kazakhstan will be built. This is about trust, independence, and opportunities. We strive to help companies — from large corporations to startups — grow safely, scale, and implement innovations without dependence on external players. In the future, we want Freedom Cloud to be associated with reliability, progress, and digital sovereignty.

In the next three to five years, we plan to significantly expand our infrastructure, both geographically and technologically. We want to become the number one cloud platform in Central Asia. This means: more data centers, capacity, localized solutions, multi-cloud environments, integration with global vendors, but on our terms — with priority for security and transparency.

At the same time, we will strengthen our partner network, develop new products — including in the field of artificial intelligence and automation — and, of course, invest in people. For us, it is important to grow not only the product but also expertise within the country. We want Freedom Cloud to be a magnet for the best IT specialists and technology leaders of the region.