Nigerian businesses are starting to embrace cloud-based technology

06 November 2018 Consultancy.africa

Following reports that businesses in South Africa are increasingly embracing the cloud revolution, Vice President of Corporate Development and Marketing at NETCOM Africa Charles Harrington has now indicated that the business environment in Nigeria appears to be displaying a similar trend.

The digital environment across Africa is becoming more vibrant, particularly as an expanding proportion of the consumer base on the continent gains access to the internet. As a result, markets across Africa are now in a position to possibly mitigate the effects of digital disruption by adopting innovative technology themselves.

The high costs involved in adopting these innovative enhancements means that this trend is likely to be led by the largest economies on the continent such as South Africa and Nigeria. In Nigeria, revenues from the digital services sector are projected to surpass the $2 billion mark by as early as 2022.

Vice President at IT consulting firm NETCOM, Charles Harrington has elucidated how the firm’s suite of service has been pushed towards expanding in scope, primarily due to the increasing variety in the demand for digital services. The firm began as an internet service provider, and has since rapidly expanded in its services offerings.

Nigerian businesses are starting to embrace cloud-based technology

Currently, NETCOM’s services include managed IT Solutions and outsourcing, cloud services, ERP implementation and management, IT security and a whole host of others. According to Harrington, the cloud services domain is an area that has gained particular popularity in recent times.

“One trend that I have noticed is that Nigeria is typically a bit behind in technology trends and then we leap to close that gap.  This is what I am seeing with cloud servers and data center colocation as well,” he says. More than the costs – which was the primary barrier for firms in South Africa – Harrington attributes the slow gravitation towards cloud as stemming from security concerns.

“A couple of years ago companies would shudder to think that could put their servers in someone else’s server room or data center, and even worse to put it in the cloud!  Today companies here in Nigeria are embracing the idea,” he explains.  

Nevertheless, the risk of data breaches still remains pertinent, and the awareness of this risk amongst Nigerian firms is made evident by the fact that revenues from the cyber security domain in the country are currently in excess of $500 million and will grow past $700 million by 2022.

“Data breaches are lot more frequent lately, and this trend is going to continue, the best thing for companies to do is to ensure they get the protection that they need before the breach. We encourage companies to have their mails on the clouds, their emails and file storage should be in the cloud,” says Harrington.