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By Anthony Nwosu
Nigeria’s multi-services telecommunications company, MainOne and computer giant, Microsoft have inked a partnership that could define the future of cloud computing and the entire spectrum of IT landscape in Africa’s largest economy.
MainOne through its data centre subsidiary, MDX-I, pulled the wraps off its new cloud-based service offering with Microsoft targeting high to mid enterprises itching to ramp up on their corporate goals in Nigeria’s increasingly tempestuous market where consumers are getting more sophisticated. MainOne’s CEO, Funke Opeke, told IT Edge News at the formal launch in Lagos that its new offering also has room for SMEs – small medium enterprises, with eyes on deploying certified managed IT infrastructures to cut costs and deliver premium services to their clients.
MDX-I’s solution is built on “Microsoft Azure’s enterprise grade infrastructure and provides flexible, highly available and fully secure private computing environments to companies on a Pay-as-you-Go basis. By combining expertise in proven, yet familiar technologies and geographic specialization, MDX-I Cloud Services deliver a solution tailored to meet the needs of enterprise customers in West Africa. Benefits of the Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) solution include access to a wide range of computing resources, such as storage, CPU, memory, security firewalls and network bandwidth, provisioned on a subscription basis.”
“Having access to cloud computing services, platform and infrastructure on demand creates more of a level playing field for smaller and medium-sized enterprises, with the benefit of on-demand access to a world-class infrastructure that can scale with corporate ambition. Many IT strategists recognise that there are further advantages in freeing up the IT department to operate proactively and strategically rather than passively and reactively – not to mention in switching IT financing from tranches of capital outlay to a predictable rental model within operational expenditure,” writes one authority on cloud computing.
MDX-I’s solution is built on “Microsoft Azure’s enterprise grade infrastructure and provides flexible, highly available and fully secure private computing environments to companies on a Pay-as-you-Go basis. By combining expertise in proven, yet familiar technologies and geographic specialization, MDX-I Cloud Services deliver a solution tailored to meet the needs of enterprise customers in West Africa. Benefits of the Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) solution include access to a wide range of computing resources, such as storage, CPU, memory, security firewalls and network bandwidth, provisioned on a subscription basis.”
With an increasing number of private and public establishments integrating IT in their routine operations, there is a steady rise for data storage, virtualization and invariably, cloud computing. More companies want to outsource their mission-critical applications to trusted cloud companies to achieve efficiency and scalability. MDX-I is leveraging on a green demand in corporate Nigeria with potential to explode in the next few years.
“The new solution is the first Cloud offering MDX-I is launching in partnership with Microsoft, the leading global provider of cloud services. With this launch, MDX-I is positioned to meet the computing infrastructure needs of companies deploying private, public or hybrid clouds from its Tier III Data Centre in Lagos. This ensures quick and agile provisioning of infrastructure for businesses and government agencies as required, thus improving their time to deliver on-demand applications and services” said an official statement by the company.
At a press conference to mark the launch, MDX-I’s Business Development Executive, Rob Lever said the new cloud platform is a scalable and cost effective alternative to dedicated computing resources deployed in-house by companies and includes managed virtual data centers, virtual private servers, and virtual LANs to assure customers of high availability.
“Businesses are beginning to embrace cloud services because it promises increased agility in addition to savings in OPEX and CAPEX. Our IaaS platform reduces complexity, interoperability, and security concerns of our customers. It provides them the benefit of leveraging our infrastructure, and the expertise of MDX-I and Microsoft, without their having to incur the substantial costs associated with deploying such solutions”.
Kabelo Makwane, Microsoft Nigeria’s Managing Director noted that “The Cloud OS Network is a worldwide group of select service providers that partner closely with Microsoft to offer customers hybrid cloud and Azure-enabled solutions. Uniquely combining expertise in Microsoft technology, customer requirements, and geographic specialization, Cloud OS network members deliver the Microsoft Cloud Platform customized to your specific needs.”
“We chose MainOne as our Cloud Provider because of their excellent reputation for quality and support in the telecoms sector. We are impressed by their technical expertise and willingness to go the extra mile in their provision of what is a fairly complex solution.” Said Christian Landmark, the CEO of PCL Mobisafe, the pilot customer of the new cloud offering.
