MyBroadband 2019 Cloud Conference

Of all of South Africa’s ‘firsts’ in 2019, the MyBroadband Cloud Conference is by far one of the most intriguing. It’s the first of its kind in the country, hosting IT, Cloud, Hosting and Security professionals at the top of their game, from around the world.

Presented by MyBroadband, South Africa’s premier internet and technology news source, the conference will host talks from industry professionals in various sectors, an expo with stands and stalls to check out, and finally, a drinks and networking mixer to top it all off.

Let’s find out a little more about this strong step forward, helping bring South Africa up to speed with the rest of the connected world.

What is the Cloud?

The cloud is a pretty simple metaphor for a host of servers connected over various networks, working together to provide a service or perform a task. For example, when you upload a document to Google Drive, it’s now available on Google’s Cloud, meaning you could access it easily from any computer or device, anywhere in the world – as opposed to just the one you uploaded it on.

You’ll likely already have a pretty good understanding of the cloud considering most of the daily apps and services we use – ie. Netflix, WhatsApp, Instagram and Spotify – all use cloud technology as part of their systems. A fun fact: the majority of these companies host most, if not all, of their systems on Amazon’s cloud services. Cloud infrastructure has slowly taken over the way we use computers and technology. While it may feel like a recent addition to computing, all the companies we’ve mentioned here have spent a large portion of the last number of years transitioning over to cloud systems and architecture. It’s the best way we currently have to increase the availability of information and services on the web.

One important thing to remember in 2019, however, is the phrase “There’s no cloud, it’s just someone else’s computer”. Privacy on the internet is one of the biggest current technological social issues of today, and rarely a day goes by where one doesn’t stumble across a news piece on privacy and tech security.

What’s on that the MyBroadband 2019 Cloud Conference

The main focus of the Cloud Conference will be to discuss and unveil new technologies and innovations within the Cloud sector. Technology advances at such a rapid rate in this day and age. Many of these premieres will feature tech that’s not quite yet in action – but is nonetheless important to be aware of and understand before it hits the market.

With talks from companies like Microsoft, Oracle (owners of the famous Java), Huawei, and VMware ( a leading company in virtual machines and cloud hosting) we will surely be met with a plethora of information on the coming developments in cloud infrastructure and technology which will soon form the basis of all the systems we use every day.

In addition, there will be a big focus on privacy and security, as those are some of the hottest topics in technology today. While it’s one thing for you to make sure Facebook isn’t recording your conversations for advertising purposes, it’s a whole different issue when you have an entire company or agency’s database on the cloud, where it could be vulnerable to being compromised.

We’d imagine that almost every speaker at this conference, no matter which company they’re from, will have talking points on industry-level privacy and security. It will likely be discussed at a scalable level, for use by large corporations who are hosting sensitive or private data on a wide network of servers around the world.

The conference will take place on the 6th of June at the Gallagher Convention Center in Midrand, Johannesburg. You can buy your tickets here. You can get a big discount using the code: MyBroadbandCloud2019.

Three Talks to See

While the conference is just a day long, we thought we’d give you some details on what we thought seem like the three most interesting talks of the day.

Microsoft AXIZ – While the details of this talk are unclear, Microsoft’s own Cloud Specialist, Kevin George, will be speaking as a guest speaker for Axiz, a tech distributor in all sectors of technology you can imagine. They’re attempting to build a strong technological ecosystem within Africa, allowing us as a continent to keep up to speed with the latest in international IT developments, whether it be on a device, infrastructure or cloud level.

The Future is Autonomous – Oracle – Oracle, the company best known for Java, is giving a talk titled “The Future is Autonomous – Real Life Experiences of Modern Businesses successfully transforming with Cloud”. If you’ve ever wondered how businesses end up as massive cloud entities or leading tech development companies, then this is the talk for you. We would also imagine, given the title of the talk, that the three specialists from Oracle who are presenting the talk will delve into AI and automated systems – a great point of interest in the tech world of 2019.

Hosting Services – Liquid Telecom – Ever wondered who Telkom, MWEB and MTN host their services and networks on? Have you ever considered who Google buys server space from when setting up localized services within Africa? Then this is the talk for you. Liquid Telecom is the largest industrial network and coverage provider in Africa, hosting mobile carriers, fibre providers, satellite and GPS services and more, all across the continent for a huge array of clients. You’ll be sorry if you miss this one if you’re into large-scale cloud infrastructure as a whole.

How to get to the MyBroadband 2019 Cloud Conference

The conference is hosted at the Gallagher Convention Center at 19 Richards Dr, Halfway House, Midrand. It’s home to the Pan African Parliament (our equivalent of the EU), and is situated just about exactly halfway between Joburg and Pretoria city centres – around a 30-minute drive from either direction

Alternately, if you’re in another province and not up to a long drive, cheap Kulula flights could be the answer you’re looking for. Why not go to the cloud conference on a trip through the clouds?

Conclusion

If you’re a tech lover, and you’re interested in seeing possibly one of the most important tech conferences happening in Africa this year, then you’re in for a treat. The 6th of June isn’t far away, so be sure to book your ticket as soon as possible to avoid disappointment!