Cloud World Forum 2014 overview

The 3^rd Annual Cloud World Forum Africa drew to a close after two days of stimulating discussion, interactive sessions and break-out workshops which drilled down in to how the migration to the Cloud has impacted businesses across the region, as well as the wider themes that are impacting the digital landscape in Africa for 2014 and beyond.

The 2014 edition saw an even wider variety of speakers and topics from the region with insightful sessions from Amazon Web Services, Facebook, Folup, Vodacom, ODCA, City of Cape Town, Ovum, DAV, Rand Water and more.

A huge two thirds of the audience were made up of enterprise and operator attendees, proving that the Cloud World Forum Africa is the meeting place for those responsible for ICT and Cloud across a wide variety of industries.

The speed networking sessions were as always one of the key highlights of the event and provided great opportunities for introductions with potential partners and business leads and lots of stimulating discussions!

The end of Day One saw attendees enjoy more networking as part of the hosted drinks reception and the Cloud World Series team were delighted to award Huawei with the awards for the Best Business Application Cloud Platform. During the event, Huawei showcased its FusionCube solution to demonstrate the evolution and reconstruction of the telecom industry in the cloud era, and to share insights on how cloud technology and network virtualisation will provide the biggest opportunities and challenges for operators going forward.

A huge thank you to our sponsors, speakers and of course to our attendees who make the event possible. It is great to hear your thoughts on the pertinent issues that are impacting ICT, Cloud and Digital in the region – please do share your feedback and ideas with us and help us to shape the agenda for 2015! Look out for more details on new formats, speakers and sessions for 2015 and we do hope that you will be able to join us again in the heart of Johannesburg!

See you next year!

Cloud World Series Team

What did our past attendees think?

“A fantastic event with lots of enriching discussions. You missed out if you weren’t here!”
CCO, Africom Zimbabwe

“A brilliant event with all the right players of Cloud in the region here. Great to see both enterprises and telcos in productive discussions. "
Managing Executive, Telkom South Africa

“Liked it very much, I learned what my colleagues are doing in Cloud computing, what I need to do better and where the industry is going."
Director, MTN

“This is a really useful event for me to hear how we can improve our Cloud offer and strategy in the future."
Etisalat Nigeria

“CWF Africa provided an excellent opportunity that aligned well with Data Agility Group's (DAG) goal to expand into the African Cloud markets.  The event was well organized and attended by key industry leaders.  As a professional services company that provides Advanced Storage Services together with Quality Management and Testing, DAG, while at CWF Africa, has made key connections that we believe will excelerate our growth to provide much needed Cloud services in Africa. We look forward to participating again in the future.”
Data Agility Group International, FZ-LLC, Advanced Storage Services

“A Great way to get various opinions from Cloud Experts. Open, honest & objective”
Libety Life, Technology expert

“Generated several more qualified leads this year, potentially due to screening and pre registration process, Organisation, venue and conference tracks were excellent”
Regional Vice president, ASG South Africa

“A great opportunity to meet and network with likeminded people as well as gain insight into industry from its leaders.”
Director, Virtui Technologies

“CWFA 2013 has been a very interesting and enlightening experience, bringing into prospective the opportunities and challenges of cloud computing in Africa and producing insight on how we can leverage cloud technology to stimulate growth, development and innovation on the continent. I will definitely be back next year.”
Etisalat, Head of Infrastructure

“The speed networking sessions were very valuable and useful to us! I hope to see it happening again in upcoming events. The longer session the better!"
George Thomas, Practice Manager – Cloud, Dimension Data, SA

“Informa brought all stakeholders (telco, enterprises, service providers) to this forum and lots of knowledge was shared among stakeholders. Speakers and the content presented was excellent. Event organisers have done a wonderful job. Well done Informa team!”
Paritosh Babla, Head of Division, Vodacom, Tanzania

“Knowledge and experience shared at the conference will provide adequate guidance to make decisions about right cloud technology for both telco and it domain. Thank you Informa!”
Abiodun Aransi, MTN Nigeria

"Thanks again for the arranging the conversation with the sales team.  I look forward to attending more of the Informa events in Africa. I especially enjoyed the “Speed Networking” – great way to find business’ that are relevant to your products."
Justin Lord, Head of Business Development, Africa, Telstra Global

“The quality of meetings arranged was very good. This includes prospects from client I asked to meet that were brought to our stand as well as those that Aleksandra took me to meet.
Speed networking was also very effective and yield interesting information. The attention given by organisers to HP to ensure that we got most out of the event is highly appreciated.”
Toni Prince, Director , HP MEMA Cloud, HP, UAE

“It is a very good platform to meet the right customers in telco and enterprises. Aleksandra and the team are very kind and helpful to arrange many meetings for us. Thank you all!”
Peter Cao, Bord Director of ESA Region, Huawei

“Speed networking was great, really recommend this set up for all future events. Thank you!”
Kobus du Rand, Sales Manager, Autotask, EMEA

Just some of our past attendees include:

Who you will meet:

Attending companies include:

8.ta
ABN Africa
ABSA
ACSA
Adams & Adams
Adcock Ingram
Adcorp Holdings Pty Ltd
ADT
ADVA
Africa Analysis
African ICT Alliance (AfICTA)
African Reinsurance Corporation – South Africa
Africom
Airports Company South Africa (ACSA)
Airtel Bharti Nigeria
Amazon Web Services
ARUP
ASG Software Solutions
Astel
Automatic Mass Production
Autotask
Avbob Mutual Assurance Society
Aztec
Barclays Bank
Bodytech 2000
Bombela Operating Company
BotswanaPost
Britehouse Holdings
Britehouse vPS
Busbyhouse
CellC
CES Group
Clicks Group
Clientele
Cloud Credential Council
CMC NETWORKS
Comnet Lesotho
Compass Insurance
Competition Commission South Africa
Consol Glass Propriety Limited
CxO Advisor
DAG
DATA GUARDIAN
Deloitte & Touche
Delta Partners Investments
Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO)
Department of Roads and Transport
Dept of roads and transport
DIRCO
DreamMobile
DRIVE CONTROL CORPORATION
EngineerIT
Enterprise Cloud
EOH
Ericsson
Eskom Pension & Provident Fund
Etisalat Nigeria
FFA Group of Companies
First National Bank
FNB
Fraser Alexander
Genop Healthcare (Pty) Ltd
GeoMed
GLOBACOM LTD
Globacom Nigeria
GNT IT Consultants
Google South Africa
Gorentals
Graphic Image Tech
Guideline BizTech (Pty) Ltd
GW Minerals
Hannover Re
Hello Healthcare
HP
HR Focus
Huawei
Human IPO
IBM
iBurst Africa
iLogic
Impala Platinum Limited
Industrial Paper Agencies
International Investment Promotion
IT News Africa
ITM
ITWeb
IZAZI Solutions
Jasco
JBMC
Jenny Internet
Knorr-Bremse
Kopanong
KPMG
Kuehne & Nagel
Lafarge
Liberty
Lindile Mteza & Associates
LinkedERP
Marketing Communications
Mascom
Melco
Merafong Government
Metrofribe Networx & MEF
Microzone PR
Mmela Group of Companies
MSW
MTN
Multilinks Ltd
Murray & Roberts
Nampak
Nampak  Glass
Nashua Communications
National Prosecuting Authority
National Regulator of Compulsory Specification
Nedbank Retail
Neotel
New Age Specialty Chemicals
Omega Risk Solutions
Orascom Telecom
Orascom telecom Algeria
Oteo Capital
Ovum
Oxford Business Group
Pamoja
Parallels
Pasquales Projects
PCCW
Peermont Global
PG Group
Piilo Software
QuickPic
Ram Transport SA
Rand Merchant Bank
Rand Water
Randfontein Local Municipality
Randwater
Red Squares
Road Accident Fund
Road and Transport
s.a. outsourcing
SA Human RIghts Commission
SA Tourism
SABC
Safaricom
Sandbox
SAP
Sappi
Sasfin Holdings Limited
Sasol Limited
SEACOM
Secern Consulting
Sedibeng Brewery
Shoprite
Smiths
SOMTEL
Sonatel SA
South African Pharmacy Council
Standard Bank
Ster-Kinekor Entertainment
Stratcorp
TE Data
Telkom
The African Broadcast Network
The Future
The Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa Ltd
The University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
TOGO TELECOM
Transnet
Tshwane University of Technology
Tunisian Internet Agency
TUNISIE TELECOM
Ubusha Technologies
University of Johannesburg
University of South Africa
University of the Witwatersrand
Vodacom
Vox Telecom
Waltons
Wizard Technology
WSP Group
Xepa Consulting
Zain SD
ZOL

The One & Only Cloud VIP Networking Service

Central to the success of this event is the core focus on meeting and deal making. Our acclaimed ‘meet and greet’ boutique-style meeting service, offered to exhibitors and VIP delegates, has forged business relations for the past two years!

Let our VIP Relations experts facilitate those last minute meetings – we are also happy to arrange introductions with your potential partners and business leads prior to your arrival at the event!

Dedicated networking sessions from evening receptions, workshops, master classes and working groups are at the core of the conference’s plan for 2015.

What is more, user-friendly meeting and exhibition facilities with designated networking areas including numerous meeting areas and an exhibition theatre.

Our VIP team are hugely popular with our attendees, speakers and partners - see their feedback below from a few recent events:

“Cloud Asia strikes the right balance between the hardware and telecom infrastructure plus the needs of the enterprise and the software by running two separate streams at the same event. This greatly expands the event so that practitioners can get the latest information they need and can therefore use”

Managing Partner, Asia Policy Partners LLC

“I would like to thank you for the AMAZING job you guys have done. Everything was planned and executed VERY Professionally. The expectations from the event were absolutely met. My personal appreciation and thanks to you for the utmost professionalism and dedication you exhibited in ensuring that during the Networking sessions I got all the relevant meetings I expected and wanted.”

Director – South East Asia, Parallels

“Cloud World Forum Asia has been a powerful channel to insightful sessions and compelling business conversations. I appreciated the care and diligence taken to address key global markets.”

CEO, AppDirect

“Our objectives were the general thought of leadership and presence, to connect with existing partners and customers as well as potential new partners and new customers plus to connect with potential new hires. We have gotten new leads, we got two potential sales and one promising connection to hire. The informa team was great with the Speed Networking sessions. I am not used to this model, but found it very useful. We talked to many more attendees and I think it was for everyone’s benefit. The diversity of speakers and attendees was great. We learned from and connected to Big Data practitioners from industry to academia. Looking forward to more!”

Director of Data Science, Cloudera

“Our objectives on sponsoring at Big Data World Congress were to get to know more people working or interested on Big Data from a business perspective. Also, disseminating EU Big projects message of forming a European Big Data Stakeholders Forum.

We have met several direct contacts/leads who want to join the Stakeholders Forum. We also got to know the maturity of initiatives in business regarding Big Data. The Informa team was very helpful in introductions, Speed Networking and new leads for us. Thank you!”

Senior Research Scientist, Siemens AG