Heath Muchena

5G mobile technology promises to unlock real-time analytics, cloud-based AI and IoT applications for enterprises, but African service providers are just starting to deploy the wireless mobile technology.

Interview with IBM Distinguished Engineer and Chief Technology Officer, IBM Blockchain Services for Middle East & Africa, Anthony Butler.

Satellite communication services fuel broadband, IoT applications in underserved areas.

The launch earlier this month of an Amazon Web Services (AWS) region in Cape Town ratchets up the competition among the hyperscale cloud providers in Africa, providing enterprise tech leaders with more services to choose from and different pricing options.
The presence of AWS also helps ensure that rival vendors that have not yet opened their own facilities will rush to do so, for fear of missing out on a growing market, thus providing businesses with even more choice.

Cloud and emerging technologies such as machine learning are enabling new types of businesses around the world. Although cloud uptake in Africa lags behind most other regions, early adopters on the continent are beginning to spring up. Intergreatme, maker of its namesake digital identity platform, is one of them.

Kate Krukiel, GM of UN Digital Solutions Centre and managing director of Sera Afrika, says emerging tech can address business and societal challenges. In this Q&A, Kate shares her insights on applications of key emerging technologies including AI, robotic process automation (RPA), and blockchain – technologies expected to drive what has been called the "fourth industrial revolution" (4IR), a tech-fueled, fundamental transformation in industrial processes and a jump in productivity.

The global pandemic is changing the way people buy, sell, and interact, and African tech executives are adjusting their business continuity and digital transformation plans accordingly. As countries start to ease lockdown restrictions and gradually introduce phased return-to-work policies, CIOs are increasingly looking beyond the COVID-19 crisis with a view to implementing revamped digital transformation and business continuity plans.

Africa's data centre infrastructure is becoming more robust every year, and many enterprises try out cloud platforms first with software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. Often, the reason to move to the cloud is to deploy AI and business intelligence applications.

As Enterprise Solutions director at Meltwater EMEA based in Cape Town, Julia Nill needs to stay on top of these trends.

Blockchain burst into public consciousness a decade ago as the transaction ledger for bitcoin, and has since evolved to become the foundation for a range of business-model disrupting applications. AfricaCom in Cape Town earlier this month served as a showcase for how enterprises and public administrations on the continent have deployed blockchain in variety of areas including finance, trade, and secure records storage and management.

The electricity crisis in South Africa and the rest of the continent has fuelled ongoing efforts by the mining industry to adopt emerging technology such as AI-based predictive analytics to optimise operations, bolster safety, and attract investors.

This CIO Online interview with IT veteran and academic, Josef Langerman - Head of Engineering Capability and Ways of Working at Standard Bank Group and Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, explores how organisational change helps businesses deal with crises. #engineeringthefuture #itleadership #waysofworking #redefiningdigital #organisationalchange #futureofwork #culturechange #workplacestrategy #employeeexperiences #changeleadership #workplaceculture

Africa-based tech leaders explore the way forward for doing business in the post-COVID-19 era as companies prepare for the reopening of economies. Innovation often emerges where there's the greatest need. Organisations in African markets, which typically face challenging economic conditions, tend to prioritise solving the most pressing societal problems – and this is why opportunities for tech leaders may arise as sub-Saharan Africa emerges from the coronavirus pandemic into an uncertain economic environment.

In this CIO Online interview with the esteemed Western Cape Provincial Education Minister Debbie Schäfer, we explore the role of government and business in helping to close the digital divide and skills gap.

Digital transformation is central to the survival of businesses globally, and African enterprises in particular can realise significant growth through innovative products and services that address market failures.

While the internet of things is disrupting industries and creating new ways of doing business globally, technology executives at the 2019 Africacom conference in Cape Town are highlighting how in Africa, IOT is focused on critical, often life-saving, utility, agricultural, transportation and infrastructure applications.