NCS partners OAU software centre on five-day cloudshop

ITRealms:

The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) is partnering the Centre of Excellence in Software Engineering of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife, on a five-day cloud computing workshop, reports ITRealms.

Confirming this to ITRealms, the duo of Prof. Sola Aderounmu of OAU and Taiwo Oyesanwo of NCS, said that the collaboration between NCS and Centre of Excellence in Software Engineering of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, would be a hands-on session.

They also revealed to ITRealms that the occasion would afford the presentation of Cloud computing with Open Nebula to be held between April 28 and May 2, 2014 at the centre of Excellence, OAU, Ile-Ife.

Equally, they said that some of its facilitators will include Prof. Christoph Reich  and Thomas Rübsamen of Cloud Research Lab, Hochschule Furtwangen University (University of Applied Science), Furtwangen, Robert-Gerwig-Platz 1, Germany.

Other highlights expected at the event include how to install Open Nebula, configuration, virtualisation techniques, networking, and storage decisions.

Also participants are to learn how to manage OpenNebula administration via virtual machine images, user administration, infrastructure administration, administration Graphical user interface.

In addition, the five-day workshop will accommodate the subject on Cloud Management System, namely Management APIs, Load Balancing, Accounting, Monitoring as well as advanced topics in cloud Computing.

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Juwah showcases Nigeria’s broadband potentials @ Mobile World’14

ITRealms

The Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, took advantage of the just concluded Mobile World Congress (MWC 2014) in Barcelona, Spain to showcase the broadband potentials in Nigeria, reports ITRealms.

Addressing the crème de la crème of the global telecom stakeholders at the session on Ministerial Programme in Barcelona, ITRealms gathered that Dr. Juwah x-rayed the potentials of Nigeria’s broadband programme.

ITRealms recalls that the Ministerial Programme session of the MWC in Barcelona, is seen as a rare privileged event where decisions makers, ministers, investors, service providers, global mobile providers among other top industry players share insights.

At this year’s programme, a session was dedicated to Nigeria and Dr. Juwah seized the opportunity to make a profound presentation to the world about what to expect in Nigeria, which is at the threshold of unleashing a broadband revolution that will impact the Nigerian nation and the African continent.

He told the audience that Nigeria is fast-tracking her knowledge economy and contributions of broadband to GDP growth will increase considerably.

“We have successfully completed the auction of the 2.3GHz Spectrum and we have outlined a number of programmes under the broadband infrastructure framework while licensing of infrastructure providers, tagged Infracos is about to begin,” he said

Equally, Dr. Juwah said that his commission has a mouthwatering offer for investors in the Nigerian broadband infrastructure deployment programme using the Open Access Broadband strategy with the planned licensing of InfraCos that will provide a national broadband network on a non-discriminatory, open access and price regulated basis to all service providers.

NCC, he maintained is creating enabling environment and incentives for the private sector to roll out broadband networks which will be a one-off incentive for last mile to be achieved.

“We will replicate the success we made in voice in broadband plan as we proceed on the journey. We are also going to license more retail services and encourage the operators where possible to extend fibre to homes and businesses on their own. Government is committed to providing incentives to winners of infrastructure licenses,” he said.

The InfraCo, according to him, would enjoy government support, hence would be getting funding from government to rollout nationwide broadband infrastructure.

“We are ready to provide subsidy to simplify entry. However, such a subsidy will come on the basis of milestones achieved to ensure that we are realistic in the venture,” he said.

Juwah recollected that the historical revolution of the voice communications in Nigeria, the nation will witness a boom the broadband segment of the business as NCC propelled in the voice segment. Stressing that for Nigeria to be part of the 21^st century knowledge economy, there is need to leverage on the potentials of broadband.

“We have done quite well in the voice segment, but taking a look at the data segment, our internet penetration rate currently is 32.9 per cent, our broadband penetration rate is 6.1 per cent, taking it to a higher speed broadband, this 6.1 per cent will disappear,” he explained.

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Etisalat group, Ericsson team up on networked society initiatives

ITRealms:

The  Etisalat Group in collaboration with Ericsson to boost its high-speed communications and video delivery networks using Ericsson’s innovative technologies and services to offer more citizens access to public services from any internet-enabled mobile device, anywhere and anytime, ITRealms reports.

This, ITRealms gathered was in recognition of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) market transformation and the need to adopt the latest digital technologies to satisfy consumers.

Hence, Etisalat and Ericsson signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a new collaboration to enable a high-speed, responsive network, laying the foundation for next-generation infrastructure for m-government and smart city initiatives.

ITRealms also gathered that high-speed broadband connectivity is fundamentally changing the way people live, interact and do business; consumers expect access to information, entertainment and businesses with faster speeds.

Through this partnership, Etisalat Group will launch trials of innovative Ericsson technologies such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) Broadcast, Ericsson Radio Dot System, and Ericsson’s heterogeneous network solutions.

Mr. Hatem Bamatraf, Chief Technology Officer at Etisalat Group affirmed to ITRealms that over the years, Etisalat Group has demonstrated its ability to build and sustain the most advanced and innovative networks.

“Conducting such innovative trials is only the first step. This will pave the way for further collaborations and the eventual delivery of more advanced, reliable and faster broadband access to users across the region,” he said.

Additionally, ITRealms learnt that Etisalat will collaborate with Ericsson to roll out a mobile identity based service, and to explore opportunities for expanding these services across each of the countries Etisalat Group operates in.

Mobile identity, ITRealms said, is a key foundation for m-government, m-commerce and m-health services.

“The service allows subscribers to use their mobile identity securely via a one-click sign in, giving access to diverse applications, government services and websites, without the risk of being data-mined by the various ID providers,” Bamatraf hinted.

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