Cloud computing technology is rapidly innovating in recent times. Cloud solutions offer improved operational efficiencies, increased performance, centralized and simplified IT managed, mobility solutions at lower costs. Cloud innovation has touched every region and industry, revolutionizing the way businesses think and operate. The African continent is not excluded. Though Africa was slow to embrace the cloud revolution, it is quickly catching up in recent times.

So how can ISPs in Africa play a role in this revolution?

The ISP market in Africa is booming across most of the countries on the continent. The number of ISPs across the countries are multiplying, and all offering similar services, making the market highly competitive. For instance, Statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), showed that at the beginning of the year 2021, there were 65 licensed ISPs with 1,658 Point of Presence (PoPs) spread across the country. And offers for internet services, mobile data and content services are multiplying. And this is a recurrent situation in several countries across the continent.

As such, African telecoms need to look for alternative revenue streams to stay in the competition and gain new market share. Sticking on to traditional internet services would leave Internet Service Providers (ISPs) out of the market within a quick time. Bridging the gap between Internet services and content services is a great opportunity to tap into lucrative revenue streams while building local content and contributing to the local economy.

Why a private hosted cloud?

A private hosted cloud is when a business can store all its data and resources in a close by datacenter, so that they are readily available, without the hassles of an on-premise solution. Private hosted Cloud is the latest trend in cloud solutions at the moment and certainly fits the African environment, as ISPs using it will be able to benefit from better performance, scalability and high availability. Furthermore, private hosted cloud is a great opportunity as the number of quality datacenters keep cropping up around the continent.

Here are 6 good reasons why ISPs should consider a private hosted cloud.

1) Private hosted cloud is cost effective

Contrary to the general thinking, private hosted cloud is not more expensive than public cloud.

It significantly reduces upfront and operational costs as ISPs can go for colocation, start small and scale up as the business grows. ISPs will not save on expenses but will certainly save on costs incurred to purchase hardware, labour and other maintenance costs. Moreover with solutions like ahomé cloud, a turn key solution for ISPs coming in on the market, ISPs can easily start a cloud business in no time with minimal capital investment.

2) Private hosted Cloud means data sovereignty

While cloud solutions are location-agnostic, cloud service providers should comply with government regulations. Data sovereignty is an important requirement wherein the authority and control of data should lie within the jurisdiction boundaries. While countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Togo, Mauritius, Rwanda and others have comprehensive data protection laws, other African countries are coming up with specific rules related to data integrity. It means technology firms conducting business in Africa should proactively monitor these regulations and comply with them. With locally private hosted cloud solutions, ISPs can deliver secure and highly scalable cloud services while keeping the data local, naturally complying with new data protection legislations. .

3) The Rise of Edge Computing brings Unlimited Opportunities

Edge computing is on the rise. When storage and computing power are positioned closest to the work location, businesses can deliver applications with high speeds and low latency while managing data sovereignty and regulatory compliance. The existing infrastructure comprising routers and datacenters with direct connections make ISPs a right choice to fill this gap in the traditional cloud computing offerings. As such, businesses are turning towards local ISPs instead of choosing public cloud providers such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform and Azure. It is the right time for ISPs in Africa to leverage this trend and get transformed into a cloud service provider, upscaling their business offerings with services such as storage, backup, VPS, domain names, VPN, analytics and other value-added business services. And starting with a locally hosted private cloud is the answer to a quick scalable start.

4) Low Latency

Applications built on the microservices architecture comprise distributed databases, edge and serverless computing that require high-bandwidth and low-latency networks. One of the biggest challenges for the African cloud ecosystem is the lack of high-speed network connectivity. With irregular spikes in speed and latency, organizations struggle to deliver the speed and performance required for cloud apps. A private hosted cloud allows ISPs to deliver cloud services with low latency and better speeds as the network and connection remain local.

5) Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency is a major concern in the African region. Using cost-effective and low-power consuming devices such as Raspberry Pi and NUC mini PCs from Intel, ISPs can become energy-efficient and eco-friendly while removing all barriers for IT development in Africa.

6) Contribution to the Local Economy

By deploying a private hosted cloud and selling own hosted cloud services, ISPs can transform their traditional internet services portfolio into an on-demand cloud package.  This will directly impact the local society as ISPs make cloud products easily available to local businesses at more affordable prices.

This will bring new opportunities for businesses and promote growth, employment, hence contributing to the development of the local economy.

Conclusion

Cloud adoption is rapidly growing on the African continent, bringing a plethora of business opportunities to everyone. Leveraging this trend is key for ISPs to innovate their business offerings while making their business future-proof. In addition, ISPs can help everyone access cloud resources while significantly contributing to the local economy and growth. This is an opportunity which cannot be ignored and is certainly worth a thought and action.

This is where Cloud Inspire, with its innovative Cloud platform, ahomé cloud, can enable ISPs in Africa to launch their cloud business in 30 days. ahomé cloud has been developed for the African context, taking into account potential business opportunities it can bring to ISPs in Africa. With ahomé cloud, the value proposition is clear: become the next recognized cloud provider of your region (similar to OVH, Amazon and the likes), with locally hosted cloud and sell cloud services at more competitive prices. Additionally local hosted cloud also comes with the benefit of sovereignty and abiding by the local data protection laws currently being passed in several African countries.