Author: Akin Naphtal

National Australia Bank has announced a multimillion-dollar, long-term deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com. the company, to further drive NAB’s cloud-first technology strategy. NAB has become the market leader in cloud transition thanks to its ambitious multi-cloud approach, which includes extended and expanded collaboration. The latest deal between the two organisations includes the acceleration of the migration of key critical workloads to AWS. AWS and NAB have also agreed on a fresh partnership, with AWS Graviton processors that offer the best price-to-performance for cloud workloads, helping NAB improve efficiency and sustainability in the cloud. NAB Group Executive Technology…

Africa Data Centres, a business of Cassava Technologies, has decided to construct a new datacentre in Kigali, the company’s first in Rwanda. According to a statement released by the company, the new facility will have 2MW of IT load and will be ready in the first quarter of 2023. Tesh Durvasula, CEO of Africa Data Centres.Tesh Durvasula, CEO of Africa Data Centres.Tesh Durvasula, CEO, Africa Data Centres, says, “”It is an exciting time for Africa Data Centres. Our decision to build a datacentre in Kigali was an easy one, given Rwanda’s robust economic recovery post the COVID-19 pandemic and the…

India-headquartered private technology firm Zoho Corporation is looking to expand its operation in Africa, and announced it will open a second office in South Africa in Q1 2023. It currently has an office in Cape Town. Detailing the development in Johannesburg yesterday, the company said Middle East and Africa (MEA) is its second highest growing region and in 2021 experienced 52% growth – up from 29% in 2020. In South Africa, the company experienced net new customer growth of 75% in 2021. It has also set up offices in Egypt, Kenya and Nigeria. Zoho has identified partnerships and market presence…

Russian tech giant Yandex has said it is reorganizing its operations, moving to cut its ties with Russia in a restructuring that solidifies government control over a company once seen as a bellwether for the country’s digital economy. The announcement comes after months of internal turmoil, with executives departing, the sale of the two of the company’s best-known products, and company shares hitting basement prices prior to being frozen on international stock exchanges. “These are exceptionally challenging times,” John Boynton, chairman of Yandex’s board of directors, said in a statement released late on November 25. According to report from the…

Services Australia has said it will finish the year with up to 1000 fewer ICT contractors, which the agency attributes to the end of several large programs and associated labour hire agreements. The agreements are understood to include – but may not be limited to – the likes of SAP Australia, Modis and Accenture, whose deal was twice extended and tripled in value. Until recently, Services Australia was second only to Defence in terms of the size of its outsourced ICT workforce. It has had a roughly 50-50 ratio of APS employees to contractors for several years, though has set…

Twitter owner Elon Musk has opened fire against Apple over its tight control of what is allowed on the App Store, saying the iPhone maker has threatened to oust his recently acquired social media platform. Musk also joined the chorus crying foul over a 30 percent fee Apple collects on transactions via its App Store — the sole gateway for digital content to get onto its coveted mobile devices. A series of tweets fired off by Musk included a meme of a car with his first name on it veering onto a highway off-ramp labeled “Go to War,” instead of…

The Digital Economy Magazine, a leading voice on technology development, has named Katherine Ainley, CEO of Ericsson UK & Ireland as Digital Economy Personality of the week for the month of Nov 27th-Dec 3rd, 2022 ranking.. Digital Economy personality of the week, is a weekly recognition of top leading CEOS, based on their impact in the industry, innovation, professional experience, exemplary leadership, achievements, amongst other criteria. Katherine Ainley is a passionate supporter of Diversity and Inclusion programmes at Ericsson. She joins Ericsson with a strong industry background and extensive experience working within enterprise, commercial and consumer sectors. Katherine Ainley’s Educational…

The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that it is banning telecommunications and video equipment from China, including those made by tech giants such as Huawei and ZTE. The FCC cited an “unacceptable risk to national security,” after it voted unanimously to block any imports of the targeted products. The list of banned products also included manufacturers Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua, among others. According to Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, quoted in an official statement; “The action we take covers base station equipment that goes into our networks. “It covers phones, cameras, and Wi-Fi routers that go into our homes. And…

Jingle Pay, a UAE-based financial super-app providing money services, has announced a strategic partnership with Mastercard to provide innovative digital payment solutions that will drive financial inclusion. Jingle Pay users can now access the power and scale of the Mastercard network, which includes over 90 million merchants across the globe. Through this partnership, Jingle Pay will launch physical and virtual cards to facilitate everyday transactions for people whether or not they have a bank account. J.K. Khalil, Cluster General Manager, MENA East, Mastercard said: “We are delighted to join forces with Jingle Pay as we harness the power of innovation…

Brisbane-based health tech company VALD has raised US$25 million ($37.5 million) from Canadian investment firm Vistara Growth and Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) to secure new acquisitions and boost its growing base in the North American market. The human-measurements software developer, which is penetrating the allied health sector with its software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, sees the investment from Vistara Growth as critical to its North American strategy which has seen the company make inroads into the professional sports sector in recent years. QIC, an existing major shareholder, has also taken a bigger piece of the VALD pie as the Queensland Government looks…