Africa: cloud's final frontier

The African continent has become the last frontier for international service providers to invest in cloud computing services.

This is according to Chris Norton, VMware regional director for southern Africa, who spoke at a VMware roundtable during the annual vForum conference held in Bryanston, last week.

“Africa is the last frontier for international organisations and it's become a land grab with significant investments being made.”

Norton explained the adoption of cloud computing in Africa has traditionally been hampered by a lack of skills development and available bandwidth.

However, he noted demand for the technology is prevalent and undersea cables from the likes of Seacom and Eassy will propel cloud computing and virtualisation to become increasingly adopted over the next few years.

“Africa's position in the cloud computing market has been challenged due to the lack of bandwidth and connectivity. However, international undersea cables being deployed along both the west coast and east coast are changing that,” said Norton.

The South African government is starting to consider projects involving cloud computing technology by hosting services online. Norton explained that government is moving from paper-based ledgers to state-of-the-art systems.

“We are already seeing advanced public service agencies such as SARS running our technology in their environments,” he said. “We've been involved in other government projects and are currently talking to government around automation toolsets.”

Norton revealed that VMware itself has made significant investments in terms of acquisitions and skills in Africa.

“VMware is providing skills to the industry. In the last 12 months we've grown through significant acquisitions and investments.” Norton clarified that VMware recently purchased Zimbra, a cloud e-mail collaboration toolset, from Yahoo.

Matt Piercy, VMware senior regional director for northern Europe, Middle East and Africa, explained that cloud computing has come of age and it's only a matter of time before it gains significant traction in developing regions such as Africa.

“Two years ago, cloud computing was viewed as visionary, but many businesses were still very sceptical about it.

“Cloud computing is no longer about proving IT, it's about proving how a business can run competitively. And we are starting to see many companies starting to make their journey into the cloud.”