IS KENYA READY FOR THE CLOUD?

Even though I have posed the question as the title, I will give an answer immediately and then you will wonder why I need to write a lot. Ok, the answer is no and the rest of this post will be about why I think that Kenya is not ready for the cloud.

Adoption of cloud technologies in Kenya is like getting the mason ready when you haven’t even a plan for the house. All I am saying is that its true Kenyans and especially businesses are ready for cloud technologies but the infrastructure is not there. Well maybe it might be there but then there is something about consumers getting a raw deal. It’s been more than three years since the fiber optic cable landed in the Kenyan coast. This was characterized by a euphoric feeling that the internet speeds would go up and with the prices going the other way.

I know a company whose ISP is one of the leading Telco in the country and alleged are provided with 3MBPS internet speeds. The company, as a part of its disaster recovery strategies is looking to migrate all their data into the cloud. So why does this story seem to not have a happy ever after ending?

This is why

They have never received in full the bandwidth they pay so dearly for. Whenever they call the customer support line they get all sorts of excuses. My favorite is that they are browsing so much on the secure http protocol (https). Are you kidding me? Even a novice in communication protocols knows that that statement is wrong.

If you still are wondering what being on the cloud means then think of this. You have received an e-mail with a word document attachment in Gmail. Instead of downloading the document you decide to simply open it online. Note that Google will offer you a chance to edit that document online. That means you can make changes to your document without having to download and upload it back up again. Google has just offered you a document hosting cloud service.

Now tell me how many times you open that document and are stuck at the “loading document” point with the progress bar not progressing at all.

This takes us back to the company that I was talking about. In Kenya, in order to get super fast internet (if you consider 3MBPS super fast) you will have to pay dearly for it. If you can’t then you will be stuck with the old slow internet monster. That right there is the reason why Kenya is not ready for the cloud. Not unless the government compels the main ISPs to providers a better service at cheaper cost most companies will not be able to manage a true cloud environment. So we wait to see what will happen  now that Kenyans have voted in the so called digital team to lead them, but until then I am not convinced that Kenya as a country is ready for the cloud.