West Africa’s digitalisation is being driven by data. As more of our citizens and organisations use digital technologies, there’s a market-wide focus on data and associated IT infrastructure, including cloud and edge computing, storage, and analytics.
Part of that focus involves realising the region’s data sovereignty.
Earlier this year, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the Data Protection Bill 2023 into law, concluding a years-long effort to effectively regulate the processing and protection of personal data.
The bill provides for data protection principles that are common to internationally recognised frameworks and obligations for “controllers” and “processors”, referring to organisations that gather and store personal data.
This should prompt enterprises to consider their data residency business strategies and how they can adhere to local and international laws.
While cloud computing in Nigeria may be on the rise, many local enterprises still face limited options. For many, a hybrid approach is the way forward.
Compliance is critical
Enterprises need to be fully compliant when handling other people’s data, including employees, clients, suppliers, and more.
As the term implies, data compliance refers to the applicable governance for data protection, security, storage, and other related activities.
Both public and private organisations need to ensure data is protected from unauthorised access and use.
Over the last several years, we have witnessed efforts to standardise data handling regulation, with notable frameworks such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) developed by the European Union (EU) and frameworks put forward by many individual nations.
Organisations that don’t comply or protect customer data face several risks. They can be more susceptible to data breaches, leading to cybercrimes such as identity theft and financial fraud.
Breaches can subsequently damage an organisation’s reputation and result in legal repercussions from affected parties and fines from regulatory bodies.
Even in the case of minor incidents, companies waste time, energy, and resources in repair and recovery efforts, resulting in lowered productivity levels.
A duty of care towards data
Nigeria’s leveraging of data comes at a time when cloud computing is becoming the new standard for enterprise IT.
Recent studies indicate that the approach has the potential to generate trillions of naira in additional economic value by the 2030s and enhance local enterprises’ internet-based database capabilities.
Cloud computing adoption is being driven by several factors, most significantly, new models of work and the emergence of the hybrid workforce, evolving customer needs, and a growing ecosystem of hyperscalers and integrators.
Organisations that use the cloud to store data may have a responsibility to store that data in the country of origin, depending on that country’s regulatory requirements.
This can be a concern for enterprises that use hosted services as they may not know where their data is physically located.
Under Nigeria’s new Data Protection Act, data controllers and processors must seek the services of a data protection compliance organisation (DPCO) to perform audits and ensure enterprises are meeting their regulatory obligations.
Remember, the cloud is flexible, meaning that the hardware on which specific data is stored can be located anywhere in the world.
In light of that, enterprises need to carefully consider their IT infrastructure and approach to migrating to cloud-based services and systems.
Taking control with the hybrid cloud
According to the Red Hat 2023 Global Tech Outlook, cloud infrastructure was in the top three of companies’ leading IT technology funding priorities, with hybrid cloud strategies continuing to dominate as companies look to transform digitally.
Hybrid cloud combines on-premise, third-party private cloud providers, and public cloud vendors to create a single entity capable of moving workloads between environments.
The hybrid cloud offers several advantages for enterprises, such as greater flexibility, cost savings, and security. However, it also offers a major advantage in adhering to data compliance and residency obligations.
With a hybrid cloud, an organisation can operate and move workloads according to the regulatory landscape.
Availability zones, such as those offered by major cloud providers such as AWS and Google Cloud, means Nigerian enterprises can assert further control over where their data resides.
A hybrid cloud is not the optimal solution for every organisation. But, as Nigeria’s digital landscape expands and organisations’ responsibilities to customers and data evolve, so too must the technologies we utilise to adhere to them.
By working with enterprise IT and cloud vendors, organisations can invest in the systems that best suit their needs and obligations and let them exercise full control over their data.
