SEACOM encouraged by Pamoja cloud service uptake in East Africa
TELECOMS
By BiztechAfrica – Jan. 21, 2014, 11:44 a.m.
SEACOM, the Pan-Africa ICT enabler is encouraged by the uptake of the Pamoja Cloud Service by Solution Integrators and ISPs within the region. Pamoja Cloud Services, SEACOM’s premier Cloud offering in the marketplace for Africa, was launched in the region in April, providing wholesale Cloud computing services via ICT companies and other service providers. Pamoja’s mission is to establish cloud services marketplace for SMB solutions in Africa. Adoption at the moment is largely centered on entry level services such as email, collaboration and security and will evolve to business services such as ERP, CRM, HR and accounting.
Claire Kaguara, Pamoja Cloud Services Regional Channel Manager says their services are unique since they are built around the requirements of Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) in Africa. The Pamoja business model relies on channel partners to resell the services to SMB customers and there is tremendous interest from prospective resellers across East Africa.
“Pamoja’s Cloud Services business model is built on the growing demand for Information Technology as a service, from small and medium enterprises (SME), coupled with the need for service providers to increase the value of their existing offerings and grow brand revenue”, says Ms Kaguara.
She added, “ Pamoja represents Africa as a single service partner, enabling economies of scale to both content owners and the Small and Medium Enterprise markets in Africa.
This is possible because Pamoja leverages on SEACOM’s existing network, ensuring that the SME market in Africa is served with cost effective cloud services that eliminate CAPEX costs”.
Ms Kaguara says that with cloud, the SME market does not need to purchase any hardware to utilize the services which therefore eliminates huge capital requirements especially for start-ups. For the SMEs that already have existing equipment, they will not be required to upgrade or renew lease agreements as even the skills required to do this are accessible via cloud.
Pamoja is investing, initially, in cloud computing infrastructure in South Africa and Kenya. These facilities will improve access to the cloud services and address the issues surrounding the location of confidential and sensitive data and service latency. The cloud infrastructure in South Africa will allow Pamoja to service the Southern African markets while the Kenyan based platform will service the East African region.
