Pamoja Africa, the cloud services business unit of Seacom, has entered into a partnership with Symantec to distribute Symantec’s suite of cloud services in sub-Saharan Africa.
The alliance will ensure that Pamoja’s expanding channel and service provider ecosystem has access to these services.
The company, established in 2011 by Seacom founder Brian Herlihy and Stafford Masie, former GM of Google SA, is a provider of wholesale cloud computing services via telecommunication companies, ISPs and other service providers in Africa.
Mark Smissen, cloud services manager at Symantec, says the partnership provides Symantec the opportunity to address an exciting new route to market for its cloud services. It is delivered by the next generation of specialist partners and service providers that are positioned to capitalise on the exploding demand for cloud security services.
“It’s an opportunity for Symantec to address under served and unmet needs of customers and partners in Africa, and to do this quickly,” says Smissen.
“These enterprise class cloud services have typically only been accessible by larger organisations – this changes with the Pamoja partnership in that SMB and corporate customers can enjoy the same level of protection and service,” he adds.
Through a new data peering arrangement between Seacom and Symantec these services are delivered via the shortest and fastest route to the Pamoja cloud datacentres in South Africa and Kenya.
Albie Bester, GM of Pamoja, describes the alliance as a “win-win” for all stakeholders in the evolving ecosystem.
“We are all about adding value and assisting the market with all the dynamics involved in cloud service and solution uptake. This is another major achievement for the market and our contribution towards it.”
