How Africa is embracing cloud technology on its own terms

“If it works in Africa, it will work anywhere.” That’s the tagline of Shimba Technologies, a Nairobi (Kenya)-based mobile app developer. And it could lead to the ultimate proving ground for the cloud in corporate America.

While the problems Africa faces in terms of making cloud computing work are uniquely African, the solutions developed there could help to provide more universal access to Internet and cloud services elsewhere—including underserved areas in the United States.

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The success of the M-PESA mobile payment system led others to follow the mobile model for their applications, such as the medAfrica mobile health platform being developed by Shimba — shown here being pitched at last year’s Demo conference.