Ep 89 - What’s up with Totogi: The public cloud is perfect for Africa

The hyperscalers are spending billions to build regions in Africa, setting the stage for the public cloud to revolutionize the continent’s telcos. With regulations easing and the number of affordable SaaS solutions growing, African telecoms are poised for an era of growth and success. 

Are the continent’s telcos ready to make the most of all the public cloud offers? In this episode, I talk with Shay Assaraf, Totogi's chief marketing officer, about their progress with public cloud adoption and Totogi’s groundbreaking deal with Zain Sudan, a Tier 1 mobile network operator (MNO) in the region. Listen now to hear:

• How all of the Big 3 hyperscalers are expanding their African footprint [04:57];
• Examples of partnerships between African telcos and hyperscalers for connectivity, AI/ML, cloud computing and more [06:27];
• Advice for navigating the continent’s data regulations and security concerns when adopting the public cloud [09:24]; and
• How Totogi helped Zain Sudan to move off of its Ericsson charger in 18 days [15:03].

Links and Resources

• Read the announcement of Totogi’s exciting partnership with Zain
• Read DR’s blog on why the public cloud is perfect for Africa
• Check out McKinsey & Company’s recent report, Africa’s leap ahead into cloud: Opportunities and barriers
• Download a copy of the TelcoDR Data Regulations whitepaper
• Read about these exciting partnerships between telcos and the hyperscalers!
  • Vodafone and Google Cloud boost data analytics by consolidating data 
  • Vodafone and Microsoft bring GenAI, digital services, and the cloud to 300 million +  businesses and consumers
  • Vodafone and Amazon to extend connectivity in Africa and Europe through Project Kuiper
  • Tomorrow.io and MTN Group work with Microsoft to deliver lifesaving weather early warnings in Africa 
  • MTN Group and Google CLoud join foces to improve customer experiences with AI/ML-powered insights
  • AWS partners with Kenya’s Safaricom on cloud and consulting services
  • Safaricom partners with Google Cloud to bring economic growth the Kenya
• Next week find me at Novacom’s 1-to-1 Telco Summit in Diani Beach, Kenya, running April 23 - 25. If you’ll be there too, shoot me a DM on Linkedin or X @TelcoDR so we can meet! I can’t wait to show you our game-changing Totogi platform.
• As a sponsor of the Summit and in honor of the telco execs attending, Totogi has adopted the Kakuma Vocational Centre in a refugee camp in Kenya as part of our work with Unconnected.org. We’re funding a computer lab for students of all ages with localized learning software, safety training, and free internet access for two years.
• Wanna see what’s going on with hyperscaler regions in Africa? Take a look at our Hyperscaler Regions Tracker, which tracks live and planned regions across the globe.
• Check out this episode on our YouTube channel.
• Read the transcript for this episode here.

Wanna talk public cloud? Telco execs, set up a meeting with our team to learn how to tap the immense business value it can bring. 

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This week’s guest

About Shay Assaraf

Shay is a seasoned tech B2B marketing executive with nearly 20 years of experience, specializing in positioning, go-to-market, product marketing and building growth marketing programs for disruptive technologies and practices. He currently serves as a CMO in Totogi where he is part of a leadership team aiming to help telcos monetize their networks through AI and the public cloud. He previously served as a CMO in Gentrack, Sapiens and Optiva, where he played a pivotal role in steering a significant strategic product and go-to-market shifts to enable growth through delivering value to customers and leveraging disruptive technologies and practices. 

Podcast Credits

• Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Rios Royston, TelcoDR
• Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media
• Editor/Marketing: Alisa Jenkins, Springboard Marketing
• Editing: Andrew Condell
• Associate Producer: Kriselda Dionisio
• Music: Dyami Wilson