As businesses are getting more digitalized today, with a lot of business processes going online and virtual, the need to rejig and strengthen the cyber security architecture becomes imminent for any business to survive globally, Nigeria inclusive. Breaches are commonplace today, costing corporate world billions of dollars to combat. In line with this narrative, ZORACOM, an indigenous information technology (IT) firm located in Lekki will be launching their Network/Security Operation Centre (NSOC). This is to ensure that corporate organizations in the country have access to world-class cyber-security solutions in a cozy environment manned by competent manpower.
Speaking on the intention of ZORACOM to unveil this facility, John Nwachukwu, one of the Chief Executives Officer of ZORACOM opined” We believe in doing things right, we are looking at how to service our existing clients better and how we can improve. We have a full grasp of the importance of cyber-security and business continuity; we are here to ensure that organizations are fully protected from these breaches that occur on daily basis. We are going to launch this NSOC facility just to ensure that firms are safe in their cyber environment. “
“Being a Zoracom Ninja (Zoran) means learning and doing new things every day, that revolve around helping digital businesses in data collection and analysis to make informed profitable decisions. Remember, we are on the journey of automating businesses, aimed at increasing end use revenue, enhancing satisfaction, and innovating solutions for business success”, John added.
To be launched this December 20th, the facility will be one of a kind in the country and will be a turning point in the area of cyber security solutions and manpower. The facility will be a testament of the leading position of ZORACOM as an IT and Cyber-Security solution provider.
Zora Communications Limited is a technology company, automating digital transformation for cybersecurity, cloud, network, and service management. Zoracom, apart from cybersecurity solutions offers Broadband Access Networks, Mobile Networks(3G/UMTS, LTE/4G, 5G),LoRa Access Networks, Radio Networks(Point-to-Point),Optical/SDH, Ethernet, IP/MPLS Aggregation. Others are Optical, IP/MPLS Backbones, Security/Firewalls and Voice/Soft Switch
Anthony Nwosu
” We believe in doing things right, we are looking at how to service our existing clients better and how we can improve. We have a full grasp of the importance of cyber-security and business continuity; we are here to ensure that organizations are fully protected from these breaches that occur on daily basis. We are going to launch this NSOC facility just to ensure that firms are safe in their cyber environment. “
In line with clients’ demands and technology trends, CELLCORE Ltd, an IT firm in Ibadan unveils artificial intelligence (AI) solution for lottery companies in Nigeria. Celebrating their 10 years in the Nigerian IT industry, the LOTTOBOT which is first of its kind is a ChatBot technology that automates the playing of lotto games via Facebook Messenger.
The introduction of LOTTOBOT to the Nigerian gaming industry is timely and presents a wealth of opportunities for businesses looking to up skill their workforce and transform the user experience.
In his chat with the media, Mike Nwaogu, the Chief Executive Officer of CELLCORE Ltd said “ we have made gaming simpler and easy. We realized that Nigerians are very much into social media and we figured out that it would be nice to integrate AI technology for their gaming experience instead of logging out and visiting the gaming portal”.
He added that “ We are at the forefront of deploying artificial intelligence into the gaming industry not only in Nigeria but Africa. We have been in this industry for almost a decade and we are using this solution to celebrate a landmark” .
LOTTOBOT Prime allows gamers to play lotto games by merely chatting with a bot, thereby presenting a convenient, relaxed process and experience of playing lotto without having to leave your zone. With this chat bot, anyone can play lotto games directly via their Facebook Messenger, get direct updates of results and get prize winnings credited directly to their Messenger LOTTOBOT account.
Industry stakeholders have lauded the product, noting that with the introduction of LOTTOBOT into the Nigerian gaming industry, it has demonstrated that the gaming industry is maturing. Amongst the industry stakeholders that attested to the solution is De Donkings Lotteries Limited.
Key features of LOTTOBOT include the ability for gamers to subscribe to updates, players can subscribe to receive automated updates of results via their Messenger inbox. Known as Cash Out, winners get notified immediately by the Bot when they win. Their LOTTOBOT account is credited with the prize immediately. The players, can also check the balance of their winnings on the Bot or cash out their winnings through a simple process; either by having the cash withdrawn at an ATM or transferred to their bank account.
“The intelligent LOTTOBOT is trained to guide players to play and submit available lotto games of partner lotto companies hosted on the platform, including soccer betting and soccer pools from select countries and leagues from around the world” remarked Gideon Nwaogu, product developer, CELLCORE Limited .
LOTTOBOT is also trained to attend to some questions and problems players may have while interfacing with it. The application is built to accept the Universal token PINs which can be used to play lotto games on the platform of select lotto game service providers across Nigeria. The PIN can be purchased online or from agents on the street.
Everyone, from software developers to school children, watched in awe as the world rapidly shifted online during the past two years. In fact, COVID has accelerated digital transformation by seven years, says Marilyn Moodley, Country Leader for South Africa and West, East, Central Africa at SoftwareONE. “This has changed, and will continue to shape, the world as we know it. Though the information technology sector creates digital transformation, these trends are informed by consumer demands.”
Here are seven ways these demands will influence the sector in the near future:
Continuous virtualisation
Also referred to as the metaverse, continuous virtualisation might sound like garble from a science fiction film. But its real-world applications are diverse, and already impact consumers in their everyday lives. “Virtualisation is not only confined to artificial intelligence and robotics. When someone talks to Alexa, they’re interacting with the virtual world. When you switch on your washing machine from your smart phone, that’s virtualisation. Such everyday applications are in demand and will continue to flourish,” says Moodley.
Hyper automation
Along the same vein, hyper automation will become more prevalent. “Again, this not only refers to robotics and tech automation, but also commercial automation for the everyday consumer. The process of buying technology, the tech and digital supply chain, is becoming more democratised. Consumers around the world want to digitally buy services from any vendor in any country, quickly and easily – and as this demand grows, so does automation of the process,” says Moodley.
Balancing the cloud
The proverbial cloud floodgates have opened, and consumers are adopting it at a rapid pace. But demand is quickly outgrowing governance, and many users are at a loss when it comes to levering their cloud spend. By some estimates, around 30% of cloud spend is wasted, says Moodley. “Big corporates are creating fin-ops departments tasked with looking after their cloud spend, as widening choice, complexity of procurement as well as complexity of migration increases. At SoftwareONE, we’re placing a lot of focus on supporting customers through this transformation, providing transparency and predictability to reduce software and cloud spend. And we predict more organisations will lean on us as a partner as we aim to increase education about cloud use and financing.”
Software subscription models
Subscription-based services are increasing in every sphere – streaming services outpacing traditional television being just one example, says Moodley. “Consumers are now used to this flexibility and expect subscription-based models in IT too. Licenced models are making way for subscription models where users only pay for what they consume.”
Increased security
Ransomware has become big business. Gone are the days of the anonymous hacker sitting in a far-off bedroom; today’s hackers are professionals, sitting in offices and earning a salary for their efforts. Moodley warns that smaller and smaller companies are being targeted, and they suffer the most. “Large corporations can often absorb the losses, but a ransomware attack on a small and medium enterprise can close their doors permanently. Businesses, small and large, are investing in better IT security – and these solutions are also becoming bigger and better to stay ahead of criminals.”
Sustainable transformation
For almost every problem these days, there’s a fantastic tech solution. But, of course, not everyone needs, or can afford, a shiny new convertible – for some, a robust pickup makes more sense. Moodley explains: “Consumers are now aiming for that sweet spot between technological and commercial transformation, so that both are sustainable. There’s no sense in buying the best technological upgrades around if they’ll only start reaping dividends five years down the line. Consumers are aiming to get more value for their money, investing in tech that can make a truly measurable difference in their business.”
Cognitive consumption
When Google announced that it had offset all its previous carbon emissions last year, other tech companies sat upright and took notice. And transparency around environmental sustainability will become essential in the sector, says Moodley. “Consumers are more knowledgeable about sustainability and are actively engaging with green brands over their competitors. SoftwareONE’s future growth strategy is supported by the enablers of innovation, people, culture and sustainability, and we expect many suppliers in the sector will follow suit.”
The need to have data hosted severally has been encouraged by the government and stakeholders, known as data sovereignty. CLOUDWAFER, a Lagos based hosting company talks about the challenges and prospects of hosting in Nigeria. Olawole Olayinka, Head of Marketing at Cloudwafer in an exclusive interview chat with Anthony Nwosu
Cloudwafer is an ICT Firm, can we know specifically the area of ICT you are?
We offer simple, fast and reliable Cloud VPS hosting for business applications. Cloudwafer is an African Cloud hosting company, established with the vision of providing highly available, scalable, and performance-based cloud hosting solutions, with a team that boasts over a decade of hosting and infrastructure experience supporting large-scale customers. We realized that cloud computing is the way to go and also economically viable for most organizations so we are in the business of bring cloud and making it affordable to Nigerians. In a nutshell, Cloudwafer is an African Cloud hosting company, established with the vision of providing highly available, scalable, and performance-based web hosting solutions.
Cloud Hosting is one of your cores, can we know a bit about this?
A cloud server is a virtual server that runs in a cloud computing environment. It is built and delivered in a cloud environment via the internet to the end user. Our cloud hosting service also known as Virtual Private Servers (VPS) offers highly available enterprise-grade cloud technology to businesses with the advantage of flexibility, expert support and extreme security. Our cloud services are powered by Tier III Datacenter and premium upstream networks. Cloudwafer delivers custom cloud hosting with huge room for expansion so that we can cater for small and large scale operations instantly and without disruptions.
What prompted you to go into this line of service delivery?
It is very common for businesses in Nigeria to rely on foreign hosting platforms to cater for their cloud hosting needs. Our decision to start a cloud hosting platform was made out of the need to bridge this gap in the Nigerian market. We studied the market and identified the reasons why people preferred to host outside the country instead of locally. Some of these reasons include downtimes, poor customer support and a few others. This helped us know the weak points and strengthen them. We brought a hosting platform that delivers and cancels the need to seek hosting companies outside Nigeria. One unique thing about our hosting service is that our data is hosted in a Tier III data centre here in Lagos, thus reducing latency for anyone using our hosting service here in Nigeria. A lot of people do not realize that the closer your data is housed to you, the faster it is to communicate with your data remotely. Latency reduction was a major reason why we decided to deliver cloud hosting services here in Nigeria.
Hosting is one thing that you have demonstrated capacity in, can you say that Nigerians are coming to terms in hosting locally?
While we would love to say that most Nigerians host their cloud locally, we cannot. The terrain has improved a lot but it is not where it should be. Most people do not realize that the distance data has to travel between user and server affects the speed. The number of ‘hops’ from router to router slows down delivery of data to the user. Another major factor is that most Nigerian hosting companies are resellers who resell hosting plans for foreign companies. Effectively, when you think you are hosting locally, you may just find out that your host is a reseller for a foreign host and that your server is in faraway Europe or America.
They say that hosting in Nigeria is a bit risky and expensive, what is your take?
Any venture becomes risky when you patronize unreliable vendors. Expensive is relative too. If you are getting your money’s worth, you cannot say a service is too expensive. It is when you pay and do not get good service that the service becomes expensive. We can confidently say that hosting with Cloudwafer is not risky nor is it expensive. In the last five years we have powered several businesses, small and big, with average uptime of 99.9%.
You operate in a Tier III data center; does it have any effect on your services?
There are several advantages to operating in a Tier III DATA center. One of them is uptime. Our data center boasts of 100% availability since launch. The Data Centre facility and business is certified to ISO 27001, the global information security quality standard which is ideal for financial service providers looking for maximum security.
What are the challenges that you encounter in running this business?
Like we mentioned earlier, a lot of Nigerians still patronize foreign hosting companies when they can get better services from a local company. We are faced with the challenge of convincing them to come on board. Their reluctance is understandable considering what bad experience they have had in the past with local hosts. Another major challenge is the cost of running a business in Nigeria, which we suppose is a general challenge to all entrepreneurs in Nigeria.
Cloud hosting and dedicated server are the services that you offer, can we know how they have been accepted in Nigeria?
Both Cloud hosting and dedicated server have been accepted in Nigeria. A lot of businesses in Nigeria, ranging from small businesses to huge corporations use Cloud hosting hosting services for their websites and other internet platforms. Also, several companies with unique data hosting needs use dedicated servers in Nigeria. So, yes, acceptance in Nigeria is picking up too.
Data Centre and digital transformation work hand in hand, but there is a gap in addressing the green market why is it like this?
The simple answer is that energy sources in Nigeria are not eco-friendly. You have to power with diesel generators most of the time. Using environment-friendly energy sources is not a viable option in Nigeria because of availability. Addressing the green market is going to require a lot of transformation in public policy and the improvement of infrastructure so that businesses can easily switch to eco-friendly energy sources.
“…a lot of Nigerians still patronize foreign hosting companies when they can get better services from a local company. We are faced with the challenge of convincing them to come on board. Their reluctance is understandable considering what bad experience they have had in the past with local hosts. Another major challenge is the cost of running a business in Nigeria, which we suppose is a general challenge to all entrepreneurs in Nigeria”
Why is the hosting cost still high in Nigeria?
Like we said earlier, the cost of doing business is high. However, it is not entirely true that the cost of hosting is high in Nigeria. Compared to what is offered by hosting companies outside Nigeria and factoring in foreign exchange, Cloudwafer offers competitive prices for all our hosting services.
NIRA has encouraged registrars like you to push the .ng and .com.ng domain names, but it seems Nigerians are still stuck with ,com , how can this be changed?
You would agree that the .com domains were quite common already before .ng and .com.ng were introduced. They have gained wide acceptance among internet users and the first impulse of any web browser is to add the .com extension to any name they are given. However, NIRA has been proactive in their campaign for the use of .com.ng and .ng so we can see improvements already. The .ng awards by NIRA are a really nice initiative to drive this. We at Cloudwafer also do our bit; you can get a .com.ng domain on Cloudwafer for as low as 450 naira.
In the area of data sovereignty, do you think Nigeria is doing enough to have majority of our data hosted locally?
There have been discussions on the issue of local data residency in Nigeria and with the availability of data centres in Nigeria; it does not seem an impossible task. However, we still see that a lot of Nigerian data is hosted outside the country. The government and the relevant agencies would need to improve enforcement of data sovereignty policies. Hopefully, this position will change and we will start to see a massive movement of Nigerian data to Nigerian data centres as is the practice in Europe and America.
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“Our decision to start a cloud hosting platform was made out of the need to bridge this gap in the Nigerian market. We studied the market and identified the reasons why people preferred to host outside the country instead of locally. Some of these reasons include downtimes, poor customer support and a few others. This helped us know the weak points and strengthen them.”
