The 2019 Gartner. Inc. “Hype Cycle for ICT in Africa” features three technologies that will have a transformational impact on businesses in Africa within the next 10 years.
They are smart city frameworks, the Internet of Things (IoT) and low earth orbit satellite systems.
“IT spending continues to rise in Africa alongside the maturity of technologies locally. Seven technologies have entered the Slope of Enlightenment and are climbing toward the Plateau of Productivity in 2019," said Jeff Mann, research vice president at Gartner.
“For example, cloud office has entered the Plateau of Productivity this year. Companies in Africa have made the move to cloud because of general preference for cloud deployments, but also because of the desire to reduce costs, redeploy IT staff, drive simplicity and provide more functionality to users,” Mr. Mann added.
The Hype Cycle identifies 24 key technologies and describes how they will impact business performance in Africa during the next 10 years. Thirteen of these technologies will mature within the next two to 10 years and have a transformational or high impact on businesses.
Smart cities have an intelligent urban ecosystem that is designed to improve citizens’ lives, stimulate the economy and protect the environment. A smart city framework determines the data exchange and information required to build user-ambient services and experiences.
“Smart city frameworks will have a transformational business impact in the next two to five years as cities in Africa apply diverse strategies to accelerate the development of smart city frameworks based on traffic, social and safety issues,” said Bettina Tratz-Ryan, research vice president at Gartner. “In many countries, citizens are moving from rural areas into cities, and urbanization strategies are key to supporting the increasing infrastructure needs, and to aid the urbanization growth both on a demographic and business level.”
