The State of Cloud Computing in Africa
Africa is always viewed as an emerging market for technology. This emerging market is rapidly adopting cloud technology as companies like Oracle begin investing significant amount of money in infrastructure and education for tomorrow’s African technical engineers. According to a survey conducted by Cisco and World Wide Worx, data appears to suggest that the country of Nigeria will lead the continent of Africa in cloud technology adaptation. Currently, South Africa is leading the continent in cloud application and data storage.
The survey found that in 2013, 50% of South African medium to large enterprises have adapted the cloud in some way shape or form. The African country that received 2nd place in the survey was Kenya. Survey results from Kenya show that 48% of medium to large enterprises are using the cloud. Coming in 3rd place was Nigeria with 36%. This means that Cisco and World Wide Worx has data that suggests that the cloud will explode with popularity in Nigeria in 2014.
The exact numbers that back this trend are also in the report. In 2014, 44% of Nigerian medium to large enterprises indicated that they intend to use the cloud. Data from South African companies said that only 16% intend to adapt cloud technology. The results from Kenya were comparable. Only 24% of Kenyan companies said that they will adapt cloud technology in 2014.
Other interesting data from the reports shows that technical managers of information technology in Africa have a favorable view of the cloud. 73% responded that they had high confidence in the reliability of the cloud. Experts in the industry point to this stat as a key indicator that cloud is largely here to stay. The cloud helps makes African companies more competitive on a global scale. Arthur Goldstruck is the managing director at World Wide Worx and he was quoted as saying “Now the cloud becomes real in Africa.”
