[Africa Cloud Review] Simon Ngunjiri: Cloud computing is shaping Africa’s technological infrastructure growth
Cloud computing remains a key part in shaping how Africa will grow when it comes to technological infrastructure.
Given the current covid-19 pandemic internet use and technology in Africa is unsurprisingly on the rise as we have mentioned in previous cloud review articles we have published. With this, the demand for cloud services is also set to go up.
Cloud computing involves the management of an extensive network of resources such as data storage, servers, applications, and processing power. More importantly, it provides on-demand access to this network of pooled resources.
In countries like South Africa, integrated cloud platform provider Routed notes that the cloud market is showing good signs of growth and development as enterprise customers begin to take serious notice of multicloud and its benefits. As a result, it is imperative to develop and maintain a robust mutlicloud strategy that meets continuously evolving business demands. Moving to a multi-cloud environment is undoubtedly the future.
Of course this is a conversation we can’t have without mentioning data centers. Recently, IXAfrica, the new-entrant data centre operator in Kenya, announced an ambitious plan to build a world-leading and sustainable campus at a prime location in Nairobi. Data centers are rising across Africa – and cloud companies are taking charge of creating them. A recent report from The African Data Centres Association (ADCA) and Xalam Analytics revealed that Africa needs 1000MW and 700 facilities to meet growing demand and bring the rest of the continent onto level terms.
A new IBM study conducted by the International Data Corporation (IDC), also revealed that 84% of South African C-Suite are either pursuing or planning hybrid cloud strategies.
According to the study, C-Suite executives in South Africa are prioritising the implementation of hybrid cloud strategies to benefit from flexibility, cost savings, testing and development, as well as Disaster Recovery. The IDC study showed the stages of the adoption journey that these executives are at with 32% of these executives currently pursuing hybrid cloud strategies, whilst over 60% were in the planning phase.
‘’However, some organizations are struggling with harnessing the full capabilities of their cloud environments’’ the study says.
As this happens, Incentro Africa, an IT service provider delivering custom build software solutions for the European and African market announced that it has achieved the Google Cloud Partner “Work Transformation” Specialization, in the Google Cloud Partner Specialization Program. The Google Enterprise Work Transformation Specialization is the highest level of technical achievement for a Google Workspace Partner. The specialization indicates success deploying Google Workspace to Enterprise organizations, which includes providing services for establishing governance, technical implementation, training people, processes, and support.
A recent report from Synergy Research Group also notes that enterprises have been moving to the cloud as more increasingly rely on it other than on-premise data centres. While the trend continues to grow day by day, it is not until last year that spending on cloud infrastructure surpassed on-premise data centres — and by a large margin.
As enterprise demands shift, how cloud is deployed will adapt in tandem and as Andrew Cruise, managing director, Routed, says, the future is likely to be a pragmatic cloud or dirty cloud.
Simon Ngunjiri Muraya is Google Cloud Architect at Incentro Africa.
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