Prince Osuagwa| Allafrica
As cloud computing gains ground worldwide, Regional Manager for West Africa, EMC Corporation, Mr. Rasheed Jimoh, has argued that since Nigeria has automatically become the business hub of many local and international organisations, there could be no better time for the country to approach the cloud than now.
Jimoh was speaking at the first EMC Forum held in Lagos last week. EMC Corporation is a global company which enables businesses and service providers transform their operations and deliver information technology services efficiently. For him, if cloud is where to go, then Nigeria should be at the forefront of the journey.
“As the global IT community examines the tremendous benefits of big data, the efficacy of cloud computing, and the inherent security concerns, there is no better time than now to bring this same conversation to Nigeria. We have hosted the EMC Forum in several countries across the world and each time it has proven to be an effective platform for a convergence of experts and thought leaders to shape the direction of cloud computing and today Nigeria joins the train of success stories”.
He also challenged Nigerian businessmen and participants at the forum to ensure that the conversations at the forum, continue to resonate and cause the IT transformation expected in various sectors of the economy.
Meanwhile, EMC’s Vice President and Global Chief Technology Officer, Mrs. Patricia Florissi, claimed that the company has seen some impressive growth since it debuted in Nigeria.
She said that in 2012, for instance, EMC recorded about $21.7 billion revenue, representing business growth of about 40 per cent across Nigeria.
Speaking on the theme ‘Lead Your Transformation’ at the forum, Florissi noted that the four cardinal drivers of IT businesses in this modern age to include Mobility, Cloud, Big Data and Social media. However, she hinted that none of these can flourish without trust, adding that it was the main reason many businesses were not harnessing the right tools to stabilize their operations.
She warned that the reason why businesses should take these fundermentals seriously included the recent IDC predictions on growth of data.
“IDC projects that the digital universe will reach 40 zettabytes by 2020, an amount that exceeds previous forecasts by 5 ZBs, resulting in a 50-fold growth from the beginning of 2010.
“With this data growth and in order to meet the service-level demands required by businesses today, IT organisations should recognise the need to transform their infrastructure and operations in order to address the pressing cost, efficiency, scalability, security, and agility questions that they need to manage”.
Florissi also said that “while cloud computing offers the promise of transforming IT and significantly lowering operating costs, it is real-time big data analytics that will fundamentally transform businesses across Nigeria by identifying new revenue opportunities through key competitive insights and timely decision-making and improved customer experience.
“At EMC, we strive to help customers achieve their objectives and drive business growth and that’s what we have come to showcase at EMC forum.”
