NEWS
AWS Direct Connect now
available at Teraco’s South
Africa data centres
Africa’s
smartphone
market enters
early stages of
recovery
A
frica’s smartphone market bounced back
from two consecutive declines to post
quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) growth of 4.4%
in Q3 2017, according to the latest insights
released by IDC. The global technology
research and consulting firm’s Quarterly
Mobile Phone Tracker shows smartphone
shipments for the quarter reached 21.7
million units, spurred by ongoing economic
recoveries in some of the continent’s major
markets. Year-on-year (YoY), shipments were
down –5.5%, but this still represents an
improvement on the YoY performance seen
in the previous two quarters.
T
eraco, Africa’s largest and only
vendor-neutral co-location data
centre, has announced the availability
of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Direct
Connect through its Johannesburg JB1
and Cape Town CT1 data centres. This
will enable customers to directly access
AWS services in AWS infrastructure
regions around the world. The benefits
of AWS Direct Connect are dedicated
connectivity to AWS regions, consistent
network performance, and reduced
bandwidth costs.
Lex van Wyk, CEO, Teraco, says that
direct connection to AWS is becoming
a critical component as digital
transformation drives renewed energy
into virtualised, on-demand provider-
based services: “AWS Direct Connect is
an exciting addition to Teraco. Clients
looking to build hybrid solutions with
their dedicated IT infrastructures now
have choice. Teraco offers immediate
10
INTELLIGENTCIO
activation of secure connections from
our clients to AWS. The value of these
cloud computing options will also be
seen in the different types of connections
clients require.” He says that within
Teraco, clients can peer via NAPAfrica or
connect via Teraco Cloud Exchange.
With cloud becoming an increasingly
important part of the IT landscape,
organisations need to manage both
on-premises and cloud applications, both
in-house and outsourced. Choosing the
right deployment methods for specific
workloads is essentially creating new
network architecture.
The Teraco Cloud Exchange platform
now offers another world leading cloud
computing platform, offering predictable,
high performance, SLA-based connections
that make Teraco’s facilities the ideal
location to build cloud and on-premises
hybrid architecture solutions.
Feature phones still constitute a significant
60.8% share of the total mobile phone
market as they adequately address the
needs of African consumers that have limited
purchasing power and require a reliable long-
lasting mode of communication, particularly
those in rural areas. There were contrasting
fortunes for the continent’s two biggest
markets, with Nigeria seeing shipments
increase 1.7% QoQ while South Africa
suffered a decline of –8.0% over the same
period. In terms of the vendor landscape,
Transsion brands continued to lead the
smartphone category in Q3 2017 with
30.1% share, followed closely by Samsung
on 26.1%. IDC’s research shows that 4G
phones are growing in popularity, with
shipments increasing 5.5% QoQ in Q3 2017
to finally account for a majority share of the
smartphone market at 52.9%. The forecast
for the year ahead is not as positive, with
IDC expecting overall shipments to remain
relatively flat through 2018, with a decline in
feature phone shipments and slower uptake
of smartphones causing the market to
contract –0.5% YoY.
www.intelligentcio.com