From Cyriacus Nnaji, Lagos
Muhammed Rudman, Chief Executive Officer, Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN), Nigeria’s first and only neutral IXP, will chair NITRA Technology Forum 2021.
In a press statement, the event which has been slated to hold on Thursday, May 27, 2021 at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos will gather industry stakeholders in the Cloud hosting services and Data Centre to discuss issues around the growth of data hosting, preservation and utilisation in the country.
The NITRA Technology Forum with the theme: ‘Achieving 30% Growth in Local Cloud Hosting by 2024’, will also discuss challenges and solutions to factors mitigating against effective domiciliation of Nigeria’s locally-generated data.
According to the organisers, the choice of Mr. Rudman to chair this Edition was borne out of his passion and contribution to the growth of local content in the industry and everything data.Rudman is also the current President of NiRA, the .ng registry, as well as the DNS Administrator contact for Nigeria. He is a member of ccNSO, and has worked in a technical capacity with many Nigerian Internet Service Providers.
According to the Chairman of NITRA, Mr. Chike Onwuegbuchi, over the years, Nigeria has been grappling with the need to secure the country’s data and further boost local content in all sectors of the economy, and key stakeholders are worried and concerned about how the sector is faring in this area, and how it can achieve local hosting of our sensitive data.
Growth should be inside-out.The Covid-19 pandemic has also presented an eye-opener to many companies on the need to fortify their data and cloud architecture.
“Specifically, the Forum will offer Cloud service companies, data infrastructure companies and other stakeholders, opportunities to reach out to their target market with solutions that address their challenges and needs.
“Through the Forum, stakeholders will be able to discuss current challenges affecting Cloud businesses, policies that should facilitate growth and solutions to the challenges identified,” Onwuegbuchi said.
The world increasingly exploits information technology for innovative services and competitive advantage, the data centre is playing a rapidly expanding role in job creation and growth of cloud hosting services in the country as well as the overall economic recovery.
As an aspiring digital economy, Nigeria has also witnessed significant investments in data centres being established in the country. And it has often been argued that the availability of world class Data centres in Nigeria is critical infrastructure required for the implementation of the country’s Broadband initiatives, hence the convergence of the forum by NITRA, the umbrella association for ICT journalists in Nigeria and watchdog to the growth and development of the industry
