MEGA technological trends are re-shaping the way business is done across the globe and Nigeria is no exception to this. Broadband connectivity, smartphones and cloud computing technologies are having a major impact on the entire business landscape in Nigeria. Cheap Internet access availability and cloud services would re-shape the Nigerian business environment in the next five years.This assertion was made recently by an industry thought leader and the Chief Executive Officer of Resourcery Plc, Mr. Tani Fafunwa at the just concluded Information Technology Committee Retreat of the Nigeria Insurers Association (NIA) that held at Equity Resort, Ijebu-Ode. The event witnessed the gathering of Chief Information Officers of leading Insurance companies in Nigeria.Declaring the event open, the Chairman of the committee, Wale Adedokun who is also Head, Information Communication Technology for International Energy Insurance Plc. charged the participants to use the retreat as an avenue to chart a new ICT road-map for the Insurance business in Nigeria. He reminded his fellow participants that their contribution to the development of a robust ICT infrastructure is paramount to the development of the Insurance Industry in the country.Drawing his speech from the theme of the event, 'Wale Adedokun reminded the participants that the choice of 'ICT and the Nigerian Insurance Industry: Partnering for Growth' as the event theme was to 'task all of us, to come up with a Road Map on a basic ICT infrastructure that will be required to move the Insurance Industry forward. These would help expand the knowledge horizon of ICT managers and enable them apply as well as align some evolving IT solutions to their companies' goals and objectives. This is especially evident in the evolving technological business trends across the globe.'Setting the tone for the discussion, Fafunwa noted that the time lag between Western and African 'massive adoption' is shortening because leapfrog technologies are helping to shrink the digital divide. He particularly noted that the next five years would bring more changes at a faster pace and mentioned the following as the major accelerators of those technological changes in Nigeria: Fibre, Smart Phones and tablets, Apps, Advance mobile wireless technologies and Cloud services.Fafunwa linked the role of Resourcery Plc. as a full systems integration company with the evolving trends, making reference to how the organization would help businesses in Nigeria use critical data to grow their businesses. Cloud Computing technology will be used for delivering services over the Internet. These services will include Infrastructure-as a service (IaaS), Platform-as a service (PaaS) and software-as a service (SaaS).He added, 'Cloud service is unique because it is sold on demand - usually by the minute or per hour. It is elastic because a user can have less or more depending on his need. Thirdly, the service is managed by the provider. All the consumer needs is a personal computer and internet access.'Fafunwa wrapped-up the discussion saying, 'Cloud computing utilizes virtualization, data application on-demand deployment, online delivery of services and open source software to yield considerable business benefits. Through virtualization, cloud computing enables a dynamic data center, where servers are utilized based on demand. As demand changes, resources ramp up or down dynamically in order to meet the growing or shrinking workload. The next five years will witness accelerated changes as evident in technological revolutions like Facebook, Google Androids, Tablets and Apps.
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