MS improves African ICT capacity

The African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) and Microsoft have formalised a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to manage capacity building programmes across Africa, reports All Africa.com.

The MOU between the two parties will focus on improving the effectiveness of public sector management for service delivery; enhancing national and regional capacity to manage ICT policy formulation and implementation in sub-Saharan Africa; and public sector-oriented solutions development.

The aim is to develop centres and networks of excellence in ICT in every African regional area with the objective of furthering local knowledge economies and innovation.

Achieving flexibility in IT infrastructure and anticipated savings in hardware investment are cited as the top drivers for organisations planning to virtualise their computing infrastructure over the next 12 months, states PR Wire.

This is according to a survey revealed at the VMware Forum in Sydney conducted by ICT consulting and solutions provider, Tecala.

The survey found that while 61% of organisations will increase their overall investment in virtualisation in 2011, 27% of companies will strive for savings in hardware, while 29% are planning to deploy virtualisation to achieve greater flexibility in their overall IT environment.

The Philippines government has devised a new roadmap for its community e-centres programme to help bridge the digital divide, focusing on infrastructure and capacity building, says Futuregov.

Chairman of Philippine Community e-Centre (CeC) Network, Dr Angelo Ramos, told delegates at the FutureGov forum in Manila that there were many obstacles in the rollout. “Connectivity is still a challenge for the country, especially in providing Internet or broadband access to municipalities.”

A draft of the CeC Roadmap for 2011 to 2016 has been completed, focusing on CeC development and management, content development, capability building, technology solutions and advocacy and promotion.