Although Africa still lags behind other global markets in so far as the adoption and application of Cloud computing services is concerned, there are instances of double and even triple digit growth in some countries on the continent. Research also supports the notion that there is a significant increase in Cloud adoption within South Africa’s SME market and this bodes well for further entrenchment of a Cloud services ecosystem in Africa, claims Pamoja.

Albie Bester, CEO of Pamoja, refers to the 2014 SME Survey, conducted by World Wide Worx, which has found that Cloud adoption within the South African SME space has more than doubled between 2012 and 2014. “The research also stated that twenty seven percent of the country’s small and medium businesses are using Cloud services for business and this number could double in the next two years. Our vision is to further establish the Cloud services ecosystem across Africa to meet the anticipated increase in requirements,” says Bester.

Pamoja is a leading Cloud services and content aggregation business entity, and strategic arm leading Seacom’s entry into content aggregation and Cloud computing services. The Company is focused on driving increased adoption of Cloud services, addressing traditional challenges and successfully replicating the Cloud services model for the benefit of operators throughout Africa. To this end the Company recently announced that it has deployed its second Cloud platform at Liquid Telecom’s East Africa Data Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. “By integrating our platforms through the Seacom submarine cable infrastructure we are able to firstly provide Cloud services with a regional presence and secondly offer geographic redundancy to customers who demand this,” Bester adds.

Backed by its existing and expanding operations across Africa, as well as an increasing network ofreseller partners, Pamoja continues to expand its Cloud exchange across Africa. “This is gaining momentum,” Bester confirms, “despite challenges such as general understanding of the value of Cloud computing, security concerns, data sovereignty and an ‘I want to see my data’ mindset.”

Bester adds that whilst general awareness of Cloud services and the implications of migration in business has improved, there is still more work to be done to help businesses extract maximum value from Cloud and translate that into real business value. “The ecosystem, which incorporates service providers, solution providers, networks and application owners, is certainly evolving. Our role is to help drive this process in order to unlock the potential that resides in Africa,” Bester concludes.