http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10435864/IBM-opens-its-research-doors-into-Africa.html
The 1980s adage that nobody ever got fired by IBM is one of marketing’s great slogans, but the company has always been more enterprising than its customers. Its recent move into Africa underlines how it is looking to the future.
The road to IBM’s new Africa Research Lab in the outlying Karen district of Nairobi has improved considerably in the past ten days.
This is not because Big Blue has diversified into road construction, but because Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta had promised to open the technology facility in an inauguration ceremony.
At times like these Presidents like smooth passages, not nausea-inducing bumps, and on Friday the Centre was duly opened. The people of the Karen district rejoiced at finally having some decent tarmac while the city’s tech community exulted at having a state-of-the-art server and computer hub.
This will be IBM’s 12th global research lab and the 2000m2 facility is based at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. It will allow IBM researchers to analyse vast amounts of data in the search for solutions to Africa's so-called ‘grand challenges’ such as energy, water, transportation, agriculture, healthcare, financial inclusion, human mobility and public safety.
The opening of this centre in Nairobi marks an important move to support the rapidly evolving ecosystem of the city’s emerging tech hub. Other African cities are all vying to be the ‘Silicon Alley’ of the continent with Kenya’s startup scene branding itself as Silicon Savannah. But conditions in Nairobi are very different to those in California and this moniker has little relevance to how the cluster is forming.
The 1980s adage that nobody ever got fired by IBM is one of marketing’s great slogans, but the company has always been more enterprising than its customers. Its recent move into Africa underlines how it is looking to the future.
The road to IBM’s new Africa Research Lab in the outlying Karen district of Nairobi has improved considerably in the past ten days.
This is not because Big Blue has diversified into road construction, but because Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta had promised to open the technology facility in an inauguration ceremony.
At times like these Presidents like smooth passages, not nausea-inducing bumps, and on Friday the Centre was duly opened. The people of the Karen district rejoiced at finally having some decent tarmac while the city’s tech community exulted at having a state-of-the-art server and computer hub.
This will be IBM’s 12th global research lab and the 2000m2 facility is based at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. It will allow IBM researchers to analyse vast amounts of data in the search for solutions to Africa's so-called ‘grand challenges’ such as energy, water, transportation, agriculture, healthcare, financial inclusion, human mobility and public safety.
The opening of this centre in Nairobi marks an important move to support the rapidly evolving ecosystem of the city’s emerging tech hub. Other African cities are all vying to be the ‘Silicon Alley’ of the continent with Kenya’s startup scene branding itself as Silicon Savannah. But conditions in Nairobi are very different to those in California and this moniker has little relevance to how the cluster is forming.