The Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of MainOne, West Africa’s leading telecommunications services company, Mr. Folu Aderibigbe, has said that cloud computing represents the future in the IT sector. He stated this in his presentation titled “Cloud, Connectivity and Communications” at the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization’s Annual Forum in Abuja.

Speaking on the benefits of cloud computing, Aderibigbe said “Cloud computing presents a more economical way of implementing IT services as it enables a pay-per-use service model, lower capital costs, predictable recurring expenses, and provides business flexibility. In addition to this, deployment of the service is easy since it utilizes service provider resources”.

The MainOne Executive added that global market for cloud computing is growing in leaps. According to him ‘globally, 30% of IT budgets in 2013 will be spent on cloud computing

Aderibigbe described MainOne as a major driver of cloud computing in West Africa as it carries traffic for the major West African, Nigerian and Ghanaian based telecom operators, ISPs and Enterprises. In addition, MainOne is building a 600 rack world class data center that is TIA (telecommunication industry Association) 942 Tier 3 compliant in Lekki to further address cloud opportunities. The company’s data center is also the only one in West Africa partner with the International Data Center Group of 200+ carriers and 33 Data centers.

Another cloud initiative of MainOne is the i-HQ project, an innovation hub launched in partnership with the Lagos State Innovation Council and ccHub which will provide enhanced connectivity to schools, health centers, businesses and government agencies in the Yaba area of Lagos.

MainOne offers telecommunications services which include, global internet access and global IP transit, MPLS, metro Ethernet, global video connect, data center, co-location, and managed services.