Demand for cloud computing skills on the rise in Africa

Microsoft has suggested that more IT professionals in the Middle East and Africa look to gain skills in cloud and data architecture. The software giant made this suggestion due to the rapidly increasing number of people in both regions subscribing for its integrated cloud services in recent years.

Oluyomi Alarape, Director, Cloud & Enterprise, Microsoft Nigeria said “As more enterprises, consumers and cities embrace the cloud and it becomes part of everyday life, the demand for cloud architects is obviously growing. It’s an exciting industry to be in, with lots of areas of specialization, and more jobs being created each year,”

According to statistics from Microsoft Azure (the company’s collection of integrated cloud services) in both regions, there are;

Nearly 100,000 new subscriptions to Azure each month
1.5 million SQL Databases in Azure
3,300 Azure Marketplace applications to date
Azure operates in 19 regions (soon to be 24), more than AWS and Google combined
Approximately 1-in-4 VMs on Azure are Linux
More than 60 trillion storage objects in Azure
425 million Azure Active Directory Users
3 million developers registered with Visual Studio Online
More than 40% of revenue made from start-ups and ISVs

Also speaking about the increase in the demand for the service, Eric Ballnath, one of the company’s cloud solutions architect, based in the UAE, says that he foresees a future where every person on earth would have a virtual identity stored in the cloud, together with their private and business data. He however also believes that it will take strong cryptography to ensure that no one’s data can be accessed without their knowledge and consent.

At the recent global AzureCon and Strata summits, Microsoft unveiled a series of new offerings across cloud, big data and the Internet of Things. One of the new products was the Azure Data Lake which aims to make big data processing and analytics simpler and more accessible for developers, data scientists, analysts and developers.

Microsoft’s approach to the cloud spans three areas; Hyper-scale infrastructure which assist organizations to reach their customers; hybrid differentiation, to allow organizations combine cloud and on-premise servers; and the Enterprise grade which ensures security and compliance, as well as flexibility and choice.

However, although an increasing number of people are subscribing to cloud services, data security and lack of education around data protection and privacy laws, have served as a deterrent for many new customers. For this reason, Microsoft’s Azure also has a dedicated Trust Center to give customers the peace of mind that they are protected by the world’s leading security measures and certificates. These according to the company are some of the reasons why more people across both regions are moving to the cloud to enjoy both productivity and security.