Global Technology Company Microsoft and Liquid Telecom have partnered to fast-track cloud adoption in Africa.
Microsoft and the Pan-African telecommunications providers' joint effort will focus on the delivery of cloud services, small-and-medium business development and the enablement of a television white space technology and partner ecosystem to provide further connectivity across the continent.
As part of the project, the companies will be creating 'Business in a Box', which will offer small-and-medium businesses a cloud-based toolkit of relevant applications, cloud services and connectivity. "Starting or running a small business, whilst exciting, is a tremendously challenging task," says Liquid Telecom. "Limited resources, such as time and money, must be focused on the business itself - rather than worrying about the link you need to the Internet, where you will host your e-mail, how you will do video conferences etc. This is what we plan to solve with our 'business in a box', for a simple, flat monthly fee."
The Pan-African telecoms group operates one of the region's largest independent fibre networks, which spans over 40 000km across 15 countries, with more acquisitions in its future.
According to the company, as part of its long-term strategy, it plans to increase penetration of Microsoft cloud services throughout Africa by reducing cost and improving the experience by bringing the cloud closer to the end user.
"Generally African businesses are slower adopters of cloud services. Cost and user experience, largely driven by connectivity, slow the adoption but as part of our strategy we have grown the number of countries in which we operate, and will continue to add more. In the meantime we will address those markets through partnerships," said Liquid.
This week Liquid announced the acquisition of Neotel for R6.55 billion. Speaking about the acquisition, group CEO Nic Rudnick said it "extends Liquid's footprint down through Africa and gives us a substantial presence in SA for the first time".
Liquid also acquired Tanzanian Internet service provider Raha earlier this month as it plans to invest further in the rollout of fibre across.
Both companies are confident the joint venture will enhance business potential and enable start-ups and home-grown operations to be more productive and efficient as this is the primary target market. "We believe in the power and potential of businesses in Africa and we look forward to providing the best that cloud computing has to offer. In the age of digital transformation, we want to provide not only secure data storage, but the efficiency and scalability that businesses need to achieve more," says Frank McCosker, General Manager of Affordable Access and Smart Financing at Microsoft 4Afrika.
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