EMEA cloud traffic set for alarming growth
The Cisco Global Cloud Index forecasts that the Middle East and Africa will have the highest cloud traffic growth rate by 2016.
In the second annual Cisco Global Cloud Index (2011 – 2016), Cisco forecasts that global data centre traffic will grow four-fold and reach a total of 6.6 zettabytes annually by 2016.
The technology giant found that in Middle East and Africa, cloud data centre traffic will represent 64% of total datacenter traffic by 2016, compared to 37% in 2011.
It will also grow 18.5-fold by 2016, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 79% from 2011 to 2016. Cloud data centre traffic grew 93% in 2011.
The vast majority of the data centre traffic is not caused by end users but by data centres and cloud-computing workloads used in activities that are virtually invisible to individuals.
For the period 2011 – 2016, Cisco forecasts that roughly 76% of data centre traffic will stay within the data centre and will be largely generated by storage, production and development data.
An additional 7% of data centre traffic will be generated between data centres primarily driven by data replication and software/system updates. The remaining 17% of data centre traffic will be fueled by end users accessing clouds for web surfing, emailing and video streaming.
According to Cisco, South Africa ranks as one of the most improved countries in Mobile network performance, improving by 50% from 2011 to 2012.
Key Highlights from the Study for South Africa:
- South Africa ranks as one of the most improved countries in mobile network performance, improving by 50% from 2011 to 2012. Morocco received a score of 67%;
- Overall consumer and business fixed network cloud performance in South Africa:Download speed of 2.045kbps, upload speed of 764kbps, latency speed of 95ms;
- Overall consumer and business mobile network cloud performance in South Africa: Download speed of 2.629 kbps, upload speed of 1.253kbps, latency speed of 134ms;
- Consumer mobile network cloud performance in South Africa: Download speed of 2.629kbps, upload speed of 1.253kbps, latency speed of 134ms;
- Business mobile network cloud performance in South Africa: Download speed of 2.069kbps, upload speed of 865kbps, latency speed of 151ms.
Anver Vanker, consulting systems engineer, Cisco South Africa said: “As cloud traffic continues to proliferate in a new world of many clouds, the Cisco Global Cloud Index provides all cloud computing stakeholders with a valuable barometer to make strategic, long-term planning decisions.”
“This year’s forecast confirms that strong growth in data centre usage and cloud traffic are driven by our growing desire to access personal and business content anywhere, on any device.”
“It is clear that the next-generation Internet in South Africa will be an essential component to enabling much greater data centre virtualisation and a new world of interconnected clouds.”
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