Business Connexion (BCX) has launched Africa’s first pay-as-you-go service for Windows Azure Pack out of its carrier-neutral, certified Tier IV data centre
At a media session held at the BCX data centre in Johannesburg, Jacques Loubser, managing executive of converged infrastructure solutions at BCX, said, “There is no doubt that local markets are becoming increasingly competitive. Technology in itself is also no longer a differentiator, but has rather become an enabler. This, coupled with a need to be more innovative and agile, is driving cloud adoption across the continent and is transforming the data centre.”
BCX claims to have more than a quarter of market share in the data centre services space. Speaking of the advantages of their service, Loubser said, “One of the biggest benefits of this solution is that it is hosted locally. It reduces latency, or the amount of time it takes for a data packet to travel from source to destination and solves the issues around data sovereignty.”
In a joint statement issued by BCX and Microsoft, the companies refer to a report from International Data Corporation, which claims that security concerns are increasing in Africa due the increase in mobile devices, data and access methods.
“IDC believes this will drive governments on the continent to address cyber security legislation and look at further country-specific data protection that could require in-country presence and hosting,” according to the statement. It went on to say, “Clients are increasingly prioritising dealing with a local partner as it creates a sense of comfort being able to deal with directly with a person where the data resides. It also simplifies the support process and eliminates the need to bring an additional support partner into the fold. They are also looking to consolidate the number of vendors they deal with.”
The service from Africa’s only gold-certified Microsoft Cloud Operating System Network partner combines enterprise-class control and compliance with a fully managed service and a self-provisioning ability. The Windows Azure Pack solution can also be deployed in the client’s own data centre, according to the company.
