By Mark Davison at NetApp Insight, Dublin – Africa, continually touted by major IT multinationals as “the next big market”, could have a distinct advantage over more traditional markets in the US and western Europe because many countries on the continent are not tied to legacy systems.
Matt Watts, director of technology and strategy at NetApp EMEA, says that this factor gives many major telcos in Africa the freedom to implement the latest technology available and not only learn from the mistakes of others in more traditional markets, but also leapfrog them.
Watts, who spends the majority of his time travelling throughout the region (57 countries in two years at last count) says he has been struck by the enthusiasm of African telcos for the latest technologies and what they want to do with it.
“I met recently with the Zimbabwe IT minister, for example, and what became obvious very, very quickly was the lack of legacy systems tying the country down,” Watts says.
“The problem with legacy systems is that once you have them, you have to constantly bring them with you. Look at the UK’s rail system as an example. It has to spend tens of millions of pounds every year just to upgrade and maintain a systems that was installed over a century ago.
“The analogy rings true of IT as well.”
Watts says this lack of legacy systems could be a distinct advantage for African telcos.
“Again, look at Zimbabwe,” he continues. “They don’t have installed cables, so why would they want to look at something like ADSL when they can implement 4G or even 5G? They have the opportunity to start with the latest technology today which is what many countries in Africa want to do.
“Most of our business in Africa at present is with telcos and they are very ambitious in terms of what they want to build,” he says. “They can see the future is going with the latest and greatest technology available and they want it.
“I think certain parts of Africa present big and interesting opportunities because they are not tied to what has gone before,” Watts adds. “And they can learn to avoid the mistakes other countries might have made in implementing the latest technology.”