Seacom taps surging demand for cloud computing services

Undersea broadband cable services operator Seacom says firms taking up its business services in Kenya has hit more than 300, underlining the growing demand for cloud computing services by local corporates.

The cable services company launched Seacom Business locally in 2016, a year after it did the same in South Africa, to provide enhanced broadband connectivity and cloud services to directly serve companies previously serviced by third parties.

Seacom owns and operates its end-to-end fibre network enabling it to set the cost of its services competitively.

The firm’s CEO Byron Clatterbuck told the Business Daily that an increasing number of companies migrating to the cloud, pushing up the demand for its Internet connectivity and cloud service.

“We started out in wholesale only selling to few back in 2009 to big customers like the big Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and mobile networks operators.

“After we built up the network and ensure that it was more resilient with multiple paths and quality networks we then we planned to go to the clients to directly offer our services to them, this is when we launched this service in 2015,” said Mr Clatterbuck.

“We are much focused and so the number of customers is not as important as the size of the customers. What is important to us is a company spend on ICT — where they are demanding reliable data connectivity, more storage and computing power.

“The financial services sector is leading in demand.”

The firm has so far set up points of presence, which allow remote users to connect to the Internet, in major towns including Nairobi that has 12, Mombasa, Thika, Nakuru to keep up with the growing demand.

The firm entered the Ugandan market three months ago as it eyes firms in Kampala.