Availability solutions provider Veeam Software says realising the potential of the African market requires implementation of a long-term strategy.

At a recent VeeamOn event in Johannesburg, Claude Schuck, regional manager for Africa at Veeam, said while the bulk of the company's profits on the continent are generated from South Africa, the rest of the continent is expected to bring in more value further down the line.

"When you speak about revenue, that keeps on shifting. Round about sixty to sixty-five percent of our business is South Africa-based, and the rest is from other parts of the continent. This has changed from what used to be seventy or eighty percent. The growth we are (experiencing) from the rest of the continent is encouraging."

A survey that Veeam conducted on the 450 partners, end user customers and alliance partners who attended the VeeamOn Forum found that 90% of respondents believe that services and solutions should always be available – there can be no downtime!

Moreover, 90% indicated that they recognise that business continuity, availability and disaster recovery have become business-centred priorities and are no longer driven purely by technology.

Gregg Petersen, regional director for Middle East and Africa and the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) at Veeam agrees with Schuck on Africa's latent potential for cloud and availability business trading here.

"If you break it down there are certain countries in Africa that are really strong like Ghana, Kenya, Ivory Coast and the DRC. They are strong despite the currency challenges. We are still doing good business there. It is in the tough times when you want to be investing because when times improve you will have the most market share. It is all about market share in these economies and less about profitability or revenue. You want to become the dominant player. It is the same in India and elsewhere. We are focused on wht we can offer these marfkets in the next three to five years even up to 15 years."

IT decision makers that participated in Veeam's survey agreed that availability has become a more accepted consideration in the South African market.

40% of them are of the view that more than 50% of the enterprise business will be hosted in the cloud by 2018, with 60% agreeing that cloud has become a strategic priority.

Schuck says next year is set to be one of the most challenging for the business yet, especially for those enterprises that are looking to deliver the high-end, round-the-clock availability of services and solutions that their end-users demand

"By addressing availability concerns, organisations can alleviate some of the pressure, especially if the focus remains clearly on strategic cloud investment," he added.