IT News Africa: Top Tech Stories of the Week

The IT sector has been buzzing this week… Not only did we attend the 2015 Gartner Symposium in Cape Town, but we also attended the 2015 XON Summit – which was held at Sun City in the Northwest Province of South Africa.

To add to this, IT News Africa today named Telkom and Hitachi Data Systems as Gold Sponsors of the upcoming Financial Innovation Summit. Click here to find out more.

The team at IT News Africa hopes you have a fantastic weekend. The top tech stories for the week can be found below:

News

SAP to Bring Digital Literacy to 20,000 Youth with Africa Code Week
SAP has revealed the start of Africa Code Week, a continent-wide initiative to spread digital literacy and simplify access to coding education for young people. Read More.

Uganda: Nsangi Secondary School receives Samsung SPIS
Back in September 2015, Samsung revealed that it would take part in the fifth Innovation Africa Summit in Uganda. At the Summit, Samsung stated that it would donate a Solar Powered Internet School (SPIS) to one school within Uganda. Read More.

Deloitte and IBM Watson bring Cognitive Analytics to SA
Deloitte and IBM co-hosted an event at the Deloitte Greenhouse innovation facility titled “Cognitive Analytics and the smartest machine on earth – experience the art of the possible with IBM Watson”. Read More.

ESET announces East African expansion
ESET, a global leader in security software for over 25 years, has announced the opening of their Kenyan office under the management of Bruce Donovan, with a focus on business development, channel sales, marketing and distribution. Read More.

2015 Gartner Symposium

Gartner says organisations must invest in three risk principles
Running a digital business presents business leaders with an increasing level of complexity and new threats, and this requires a change in their approach to IT risk and cybersecurity. Read More.

Top 20 online statistics revealed at Gartner Symposium 2015
At the 2015 Gartner Symposium, which is currently being held at CTICC in Cape Town South Africa, Gartner revealed some rather intriguing statistics relating to the online technology sector. Read More.

Video Interview: Jeffrey Mann discusses Gartner’s aspiring innovator programme
At the 2015 Gartner Symposium IT News Africa spoke to Mann regarding Gartner’s Aspiring Innovator Programme. Watch the Interview Here.

Video Interview: Gartner Research Director unpacks the Digital Business
IT News Africa caught up with Marshall, at the 2015 Gartner Symposium which was held in Cape Town at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, who unpacked the Digital Business as well as discussed Enterprise Mobility in Africa. Watch the Interview Here.

MTN Business and partners discuss digital business at Gartner Symposium
MTN Business and its partners, consulting firm Accenture and financial services group MMI, hosted a panel discussion today at the Gartner Symposium in Cape Town. The panellists drove the conversation forward on the importance and emergence of the digital business. Read More.

Video Interview: Mbula Schoen discusses the Hype Cycle for ICT in Africa
Mbula Schoen is a Senior Research Analyst in the Program and Portfolio Management (PPM) team for Gartner. Her research currently covers the complex challenges of organisational change and transformation from a people perspective. Watch the Interview Here.

Featured Editorial

John Kotsaftis discusses South African VOD service “ShowMax”
Video on Demand (VOD) services have boomed in South Africa. In mid August 2015, the country saw the launch of a new, exclusive VOD service dubbed “ShowMax.” Read More.

Taking a closer look at Nigeria’s connectivity evolution
Recent research from the World Bank identified broadband and connectivity as key drivers for economic growth. Therefore, it is not surprising to see many countries and governments around the world investing significantly in their communication infrastructures. Read More.

Carrier WiFi in Africa: Key considerations for Mobile Operators
While many Carriers will continue to pursue technological advancements to handle demand, they maybe reticent about Carrier WiFi in their RAN portfolio because of high cost of integration, OaM and apparent lack of business case. At the same time, long-term spectrum availability, spectrum efficiency, LTE Femto cells and continued back haul improvements are likely to be a key focus to assure continued mobile broadband momentum. Read More.

Darryl Linington