These include business email; data storage and collaboration; network security, bandwidth monitoring and reporting, offsite electronic data and email backups; offsite electronic data and email archives; and enhanced network monitoring and support. The solution was created by pan African telecoms operator Gondwana International Networks (GIN)’s iWayAfrica while the new product offering has been done in conjunction with managed services company, SevenC Computing. Winston Smith, General Manager, Terrestrial Services for GIN and iWayAfrica says that the partnership with SevenC Computing has already proven beneficial in several countries: “We have seen great success in Namibia and Zimbabwe and anticipate tremendous growth in Uganda. There is great demand for level three managed services support in Africa, as cloud simply cannot deliver on its own.” SevenC Computing Managing Director, Darren Osbourn says Uganda represents unlimited opportunities: “As a well respected and reputable managed service provider, iWayAfrica has a substantial opportunity to successfully introduce a unique managed service solution in conjunction with SevenC.” Ken Mwai, the Managing Director for iWayAfrica Uganda says that the local SME market faces very common IT challenges such as limited budgets, lack of in-house IT skills and resources, as well as poor quality of service: “We will be providing a much needed quality of service focused on the evolution, deployment and ongoing support of managed IT services.” Customers in various sectors such as finance, insurance and travel industry, see these services as essential in allowing them to focus on their core business and allow iWay to manage their ICT infrastructure and communication requirements. Mwai says that the advantage of deploying these managed infrastructure services is that there is no dependency on the customer being connected to the iWay network but only requires the customer a reliable Internet connection to be able to take advantage of these offerings. “iWayAfrica is very excited about the launch of the managed service solution in Uganda. We have packaged an excellent combination of software and infrastructure as a service. This means that customers don’t procure hardware and as a result, have no upfront cost. This gives customers the best of the cloud with essential managed services on the ground,” concludes Mwai.
