What the Rest of Africa can Learn from South Africa’s Cloud Advancement: Regulation
According to the Rise of the Africa Cloud research by Xalam Analytics, while having 16% of the world’s population and about 5% of the global GDP, Africa only contributes less than 1% of the world’s public cloud services revenue. Less than 20% of Africa is covered by clouds, greatly affecting the region’s cloud regulation framework.
Africa’s cloud ecosystem is largely underrepresented in the provision of these services, despite the continent’s increasing need for cloud-based services. Africa’s data, which is used to inform solutions for the continent’s many difficulties, is the prize in this digital arms race between international IT corporations.
African nations have so far seen various degrees of cloud computing technology deployment. Concrete data center projects are functioning in Tanzania and Rwanda. Plans were developed for the adoption of cloud computing in Benin and Burundi. However, as the demand for digital cloud services and assets rises, there will certainly be a greater need for a more structured cloud regulation.
The use of the cloud is growing quickly and steadily, largely due to its simplicity of use, direct service accessibility via the Internet, and, most importantly, the productivity improvements and cost savings it makes possible. It is a truth that, despite its youth, the cloud computing environment places a premium on sound leadership and system and data integrity.
Cloud Takeover: Massive Cloud Service Adoption for South African Businesses
To enable African enterprises to advance progressively through the degrees of protection, from physical protection up to and including the regulatory interception of data crossing their borders, African countries could opt to negotiate with their partners’ agreements based on certification at various levels. However, such a strategy necessitates standards being adopted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
It is necessary for African countries to address cloud regulation issues related to cloud services as they become more aware of the advantages of using cloud computing and implement cloud plans. Fundamentally, South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 (POPIA) governs the processing of personal data.
In accordance with POPIA’s Section 19, which examines the security precautions needed to guarantee the integrity and confidentiality of personal information, Responsible Parties are required to implement reasonable and appropriate organizational and technical safeguards to prevent the unauthorized processing, access, or alteration of data. In order to comply with this criterion, Responsible Parties must identify risks to the personal information they store, put in place measures against those risks, and routinely check to make sure the protections are being used properly and being updated as new risks emerge. Additional commonly accepted security policies and procedures may also be applicable in certain businesses, such as the banking sector.
Organizations contemplating CSPs are required under Section 21 of POPIA to make sure that the proper steps have been made to select a CSP that can conform to the standards outlined in Section 19 of POPIA. POPIA’s Section 72 holds that Responsible Parties may not disclose a data subject’s personal information to a third party outside of the Republic unless certain safeguards are in place.
According to the overall possible risk of a data breach, POPIA advises responsible parties to classify and manage agreements.
Per institutions involved, varied levels of cloud computing technology utilization have so far been observed in African countries. While many administrators are only now getting ready for its arrival, South Africa can teach them what cloud regulation policies are important for cloud services.