While South Africa currently leads the continent in cloud service uptake, it is about to be overtaken, quite dramatically by Nigeria, a new report by Cisco, a United States technology company, has predicted.
Cloud computing refers to the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.
According to the report, cloud computing is about to explode in Africa’s major economies, such as Nigeria and South Africa, as businesses gain confidence in both the security and reliability of the Cloud.
This was some of the high points of recent findings of the Cloud in Africa: Reality Check 2013 research study, released by World Wide Worx and Cisco.
The study was conducted among a small but representative sample of senior information technology decision-makers in medium-sized and large companies in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
In 2013, according to the report, 50 percent of South African medium and large businesses are using cloud services, while a slightly lower proportion – 48 percent – are using the Cloud in Kenya.
Nigeria, on the other hand, lag’s substantially behind, with only 36 percent of businesses here currently using the Cloud.
A significant 44 percent of Nigerian businesses say they will embrace the Cloud in the coming year, bringing the total to 80 percent by the end of 2014.
This compares with 24 percent of organisations in Kenya and only 16 percent in South Africa saying they will be taking up Cloud.
According to the recent report, the key to the rapid adoption of Cloud computing in Nigeria and Kenya can be found in the growing confidence that IT (Information Technology) decision-makers have in the environment.
Even where confidence is not high, distrust in Cloud has almost entirely disappeared. The survey showed that 57 percent of decision-makers across the three countries had high confidence in the security of the Cloud, while a further 34 percent were neutral – meaning they would wait and see, but were not negatively disposed towards it. Only 1 in 10 respondents did not trust security in the Cloud.
“Cloud computing is the next big step in the evolution of computing and the internet,” said David Meads, Cisco’s vice president for Africa.
“The broadband revolution sweeping Africa and the continent’s reputation for innovation add up to tremendous appetite for services that will drive this evolution. Looking ahead, the internet of everything represents the largest online trend today. As more people, things and devices connect to the internet in Africa, more data from more places will be introduced across corporate and service provider networks, which will open up new opportunities and increased demand for the Cloud,” he said.
“The fact that no one is expressing doubt about the reliability of the Cloud means that the final pieces of the puzzle are falling into place,” said Arthur Gold, managing director, World Wide Worx. “Now, the Cloud becomes real in Africa.”
