1. Cloud computing in Africa is being driven by improvements in technology like high speed network links, large data storage, and fast switching capabilities. Compliance requirements and cost containment are also major factors. 2. While network speeds and fiber connectivity to Africa are increasing, limitations still exist like high internet costs, latency issues for cloud services hosted abroad, and limited cloud infrastructure in Africa currently. 3. As cloud adoption increases in Africa, organizations will be able to rapidly deliver e-commerce, use internet marketing more easily, and employees will have improved mobility and effectiveness through unified communication tools on the cloud. Infrastructure costs for organizations will also decrease significantly.

1. What Cloud Computing means to the future of
organisations – A perspective from Africa
By
Chandima Miyanadeniya
CIO Aon SA

2. Drivers
1. Technology drivers
• Availability of High Speed Network links to Africa
• Petabyte storage with advances in Nano technology
• Terabit switching capacities – Optical switch fabric
2. Compliance
• Information security
• Audit Requirements and certifications
• Control and governance
3. Cost Drivers
• Base infrastructure costs and Operating cost containment
• Consumer demand for usage based costing models
4. Agility
• Quick Deployment – 10- 15 minutes per server deployment on the cloud.
• Flexibility in carving out CPU, RAM and Storage requirements

3. Link Speeds to Africa
Current Africa
Capacities
• 15 Tb/sec
West coast
• 10 Tb/sec East
coast

4. Fibre footprint into the interior of Africa

5. Limitations/Challenges
• Internet/Network capacities to consumers is still highly priced in most parts of
Africa.
• Latency limitations effecting user experience in parts of Africa for Cloud services
hosted in Europe/USA
• Cloud infrastructure in Africa still limited due to cost , limited user base and base
infrastructure limitations
• Appreciation of Cloud service benefits by technology leaders
and where to use Private , Public or Hybrid Cloud Strategies
• Limitations on liability offered by Cloud providers in terms of data loss, breach,
corruption may not be sufficient

6. Current Opportunities for adoption
• Messaging and Unified Communication platforms – Email , Fax, SMS, Presence,
whiteboard, Voice
• Internet based commerce and B2B strategies
• Marketing campaigns/ advertising
• Short term environments for testing and project work with under 24 month life
cycles
• DR and backup environments

7. What it means to the future of organisations
• Rapid E-commerce delivery to the market
• Internet based marketing campaigns will be easier to adopt
• Adoption of UC on the cloud by firms will drive workforce mobility and staff
effectiveness up
• ICT staff will focus more on business goals and delivery of solutions rather
than on maintenance of common base infrastructure
• Technology focus on compliance, governance and contract /SLA management
will increase.
• Production costs to the firm will reduce by the sheer drop in core
infrastructure capex and opex requirements

8. Thank You