Majority of chief executive officers especially in the developing countries lack the necessary background to make informed decisions, experts from Google said yesterday.
Speaking during the company’s interaction with over 100 Kenyan chief executives from different sectors at Nairobi’s 88mph Startup Garage, Google’s director of enterprise for Africa Didier Goibert regretted that organizations still continue to invest on software instead of leasing out from the cloud.
He said company’s can save up to 83 percent by investing in cloud computing.
“Software in the cloud cost just about $50 per user while the same software hosted by an organization can reach as high as $300 to $400 per user,” Goibert said, a view backed by country manager of Google Kenya who says companies are investing about 80 percent in hardware and the rest on software, attributable to little ICT understanding.
Goibert said the forum organized by Google will above all help executives understand how cloud computing works as compared to traditional computing enabling them to make uniformed decisions while investing in ICT.
According to Google, companies must change the role of the company information officers from simply executing the necessary ICT infrastructure to supporting the entire business strategy.
The executives also received training on how to upgrade their security given the increasing cases of cybercrime. Security and compliance expert James Snow, of Google enterprise, regretted that most companies simply had firewalls and antivirus safeguarding them leaving them vulnerable.
“Once you leave your company to the mercy of a firewall, once it’s penetrated you’re done. If you have to be innovative in anything invest in security,” Snow said.
Several Kenyan companies, including Fina bank, Kenya airways and parking retailer KAPs, exhibited at the Going Google Africa event on how they have interacted with the Google applications.
