Internet Solutions (IS) is looking to Africa to grow its data centre and hosted application services.
The company, a division of global IT group Dimension Data, already has a presence in Nigeria and Ghana and is growing its business in Kenya. MD Derek Wilcocks says the company, which has a stake in Seacom, is starting to connect inland capacity in East African countries.
Wilcocks has been back at the company for three months, after taking over from Angus MacRobert, who quit the company in October after spending eight years at its helm. Wilcocks was MD of IS before MacRobert took over the reins.
IS has taken up stakes in West African cables, and should start seeing the benefits of these investments later this year, although the main cables will only land mid-2011. Wilcocks explains that the biggest challenge is not having access to international bandwidth, but backhauling it inland, which is costly.
Companies expanding into Africa also offer opportunities to grow, as these businesses are demanding the same levels of connectivity that they are used to in SA and internationally, he says.
Connecting people
However, IS has no intention of competing with the mobile operators on the continent to offer voice services, but will instead focus on data aspects such as data centres and hosting, says Wilcocks. “Those niches are the ones that we will exploit in Africa.”
He says the company is seeing “unbelievable growth” in hosting services such as those provided by its data centre. This includes its cloud offerings such as software as a service, he adds.
The company aims to grow its connectivity offerings locally, as broadband becomes more widely available, he says. However, it does not intend moving into the consumer arena, preferring to service this aspect of the market through its current channel.
“In our core connectivity business, we are still seeing good growth,” Wilcocks says. He anticipates that more companies will want to connect up geographically separate branches and offices on one network.
IS launched VOIP about three-and-a-half years ago, and Wilcocks explains that it took about two-and-a-half years to get the offering up to acceptable quality levels. “We are seeing a lot of up tick in demand.”
Pipeline
IS offers over 100 individual products to its customers. Wilcocks says the company's culture is to innovate and create prototypes. The company is experimenting with a variety of different products and services, some of which could be added to its portfolio. “You always need to have a portfolio of things.”
IS, which is 17 years old, has 1 300 staff who “do nothing, but eat, sleep and breathe the Internet”, says Wilcocks.
The company is innovating products in the fixed-to-mobile space, as well as in the security arena, among others. It is also actively encouraging staff to use social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. “There are still some experiences and lessons to learn there,” Wilcocks says.
“It's still an exciting world that keeps all of us here excited and passionate.”
Related story:
Angus MacRobert quits IS
Share
