Cloud computing will have "a major impact on everything from agriculture to education" in Africa, according to the editor of one of the region's most prominent online IT publications.

Abby Wakama, Publisher and Executive Editor for ITNewsAfrica.com, was discussing cloud's future on the continent in the build-up to presenting at the Cloud Computing World Forum Africa, to be held in Johannesburg on 8^th May 2012.

Despite the hype, cloud computing is still in the earliest form of adoption for many nations across the globe, with its potential being hampered by a number of infrastructure issues, such as broadband availability.

And while these issues are most prominent across large portions of the African continent, Abby Wakama is confident that current changes being made will allow cloud services to have a huge role in improving regional business opportunities.

"Cloud Computing is changing the way companies do business. It enables them to move from capital expenditure to operational expenditure, thus offering an affordable way to access services.

"We are beginning to see the fruits of the proliferation submarine fibre optic cables that were laid in the last 2-3 years. The cost of broadband is dropping, there's a lot more competition, penetration is growing at an alarming rate; and African entrepreneurs are taking full advantage of this welcome development by providing apps and services that were impossible to contemplate just 5 years ago."

Wakama will be moderating a panel at the upcoming Cloud Computing World Forum Africa entitled ‘Commercial Risks and Opportunities', where the future of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is likely to be a feature of much debate. Wakama believes vast changes are afoot, in respect to the African SME opportunity:

"I see more SMEs thriving as the cost of doing business is set to drop drastically across Africa- and for many businesses bandwidth is increasingly becoming a major component of that cost. In addition, SMEs can buy access to IT resources from cloud providers on a pay-by-usage basis, and they only need a good Internet connection to remotely access the IT infrastructure that is located in the cloud provider's data centre.

"Cloud computing will have a major impact on everything from agriculture to education, providing students with the opportunity to access educational material via the cloud, collaborate with peers internationally and it offers longevity to information by storing it in the cloud.

"I am very bullish about the uptake of cloud technologies across the continent because of the rapid spread of broadband infrastructure, which can reduce some of the connectivity constraints that prevent [current] cloud uptake.

The use of mobile cloud computing will also feature prominently on the conference agenda for the Cloud Computing World Forum Africa.

The event will be taking place on the 8^th May at the Sandton Sun, Johannesburg, and will feature a free-to-attend exhibition and workshop programme running alongside the paid conference theatre.

For further information regarding the Cloud Computing World Forum Africa please visit www.cloudcomputinglive.com/africa or contact the team on +44 (0)845 519 1230.