MTN goes live with cloud offering in Africa

MTN Group said it's going live with its bouquet of cloud services in April, following a successful trial period in six of its major markets across Africa. The operator launched the MTN Cloud pilot project in December last year, targeting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa. The pilot used the Cloud Service Brokerage model, in which MTN acts as the single point of contact for customers. 

The focus is on convenience, as centralising access to services eases the administrative burden for businesses, where instead of dealing with multiple service providers, they now deal with one. Executive for MTN's Group Enterprise Business Unit, Farhad Khan, said the response to the MTN Cloud trial was positive. MTN will be going live with MTN Cloud in Ghana and Nigeria on 10 April, with other markets to follow later in the year. 

MTN Cloud includes Office Desktop, an e-mail and collaborative software; Mozypro, a back-up service for the effective management of files and servers; and Dialcom, an on-demand video conferencing offering.  Also on offer were McAfee security software; Averiware, used for HR, accounting, finance and sales force automation needs; and Microsoft SharePoint and CRM.