M-PESA is a platform designed to provide a fast, safe and easy way to transfer money from person to person and is a valuable service in emerging economies where there is little or no existing banking infrastructure outside the major cities. It is now available in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Afghanistan and Fiji and boasts over 16 million customers.
Neil Dwyer, Vodafone’s senior operations manager said: “Rackspace has a long history of being able to meet demand quickly and we are delighted to work with them in order to deliver this important and increasingly popular service. It is essential for us to work with a hosting company that can provide 24/7 support and comprehensive security. Rackspace has proven their ability to deliver and their rapid response times allow us to scale quickly and effectively to meet peaks in demand.”
Vodafone has recently announced plans to introduce M-PESA to other countries where the traditional banking infrastructure is low and mobile phone penetration is high.
Rackspace managing director David Kelly commented: “We’re excited to be working with Vodafone on this project and look forward to seeing how it develops across the world to support those people who currently do not have access to banks and in turn help them to become more economically active through the application of innovative technology.”
As part of the deal, Rackspace utilises satellite streaming technology to send and receive real time transaction data using clustered database servers. It also provides managed back-up and dedicated server hosting of all application and web servers.
