PCCW Global, an international telecommunications service provider has won AfricaCom Awards’ Most Innovative Product or Service Award for its Console Connect, the world’s first platform for Software-Defined Interconnection®. Console Connect is a game-changer for business as it makes the process of connecting to cloud-based, business-critical applications and geographically distributed offices, partners, and clients simple, predictable, and secure.
Decided by an industry vote, the Award recognizes a product or service that has delivered significantly on new opportunities for revenue growth or customer satisfaction. As businesses in Africa push ahead with their digital transformation initiatives, the automated Console Connect platform is playing an important role in facilitating fast and secure access to the cloud and data centers located both inside and outside the continent.
While businesses want to be innovative and agile by taking advantage of new and disruptive technologies that the public cloud has to offer, the public Internet has too many shortcomings for large-scale implementation of business-to-business applications, including security challenges, inconsistent quality, delays, and excessive technical
complexity. Console Connect incorporates network automation software that manages access to PCCW Global’s dependable, high-speed global private MPLS network, allowing users with the minimal technical capability to quickly spin up virtual private connections, bypassing the insecure and unpredictable public Internet and directly connecting to cloud application providers, partners, and business locations.
Console Connect offers a new level of speed and agility, which can be achieved in a few clicks with a simple, easy-to-use web portal, or integrated directly into enterprise applications via an API. The platform provides robust and secure enterprise-wide access to partner infrastructure and the world’s leading cloud service providers including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google, Tencent, Alibaba, IBM, and Oracle cloud services.
In addition, Console Connect is the only Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) platform that offers extensive reach across Africa, enabling interconnections between data centers in a growing number of African countries, including South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, Uganda, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Djibouti, with many more on the way.
Mr. Mike van den Bergh, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer, PCCW Global, said, “We are thrilled that Console Connect has been voted Most Innovative Product or Service at this year’s AfricaCom Awards. Our platform is providing local and international businesses in Africa with new levels of speed, agility, and security as they connect to more clouds and data centers. Our Software-Defined Interconnection® technology has the potential to
completely transform local interconnection in Africa and support the region’s rapidly growing cloud and data center ecosystem.”
Mr. Tom Cuthell, Event Director and Portfolio Director, Connecting Africa, Informa Tech, said, “Huge congratulations go to PCCW Global for winning Most Innovative Product or Service Award for Console Connect. Winning this year is an extra-special achievement as the people and projects showcased to continue to deploy technology to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, fuel Africa’s economic recovery, and help build a better and more inclusive digital world. We are all very privileged to have such brilliant people and organizations in
our community.”
The AfricaCom Awards caps a year of significant growth for Console Connect, which has seen the number of data centers enabled on the platform more than double to over 350 worldwide, with automated connections running over PCCW Global’s industry-leading carrier IP backbone and MPLS network, which now reaches more than 3,000 cities and 160-plus countries globally.
PCCW Global is the founding sponsor of the AfricaCom Awards and is especially proud to be part of this year’s event, given the trying circumstances both businesses and individuals have endured in 2020.
