Demand for AI-ready data storage in Africa on increase
Huawei has stressed that the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI), digital healthcare and hybrid education are increasing demand for faster, larger and more secure data storage systems across Africa. Speaking at the Huawei ICT Congress 2026 in Windhoek on Wednesday, Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa region senior expert for Storage Solutions James Maina said the company […] The post Demand for AI-ready data storage in Africa on increase appeared first on The Namibian.
Black News 
Huawei has stressed that the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI), digital healthcare and hybrid education are increasing demand for faster, larger and more secure data storage systems across Africa.
Speaking at the Huawei ICT Congress 2026 in Windhoek on Wednesday, Huawei Sub-Saharan Africa region senior expert for Storage Solutions James Maina said the company has expanded from traditional storage products into AI-compatible and cloud-based systems designed to support modern industries.
“AI is not the future. It is already here with us,” Maina said.
He said Huawei has spent the past decade growing from a niche player into one of the global leaders in storage technology, adding that the company is now the leading storage provider in Southern Africa.
Maina said industries such as banking, mining, healthcare and research require systems capable of processing large volumes of data quickly and efficiently.
Research institutions and mining companies, Maina said, also require storage systems that can scale to manage massive datasets while maintaining high performance.
He said ransomware attacks are becoming a major threat to governments and businesses, adding that organisations must invest in systems capable of detecting suspicious activity before data is encrypted or deleted.
Maina said Huawei’s OceanCyber platform monitors storage activity and identifies abnormal behaviour linked to cyberattacks.
In healthcare, he said, fragmented medical information systems remain a challenge in parts of Africa, making it difficult for hospitals and government departments to access patient records across regions.
“If the government is able to have a single source of information, it becomes very easy to provide services,” he said.
Maina said Huawei’s storage platforms support medical imaging, pathology analysis and gene sequencing, citing a project in China where gene sequencing processing time was reduced from 24 hours to seven minutes.
(NAMPA)
The post Demand for AI-ready data storage in Africa on increase appeared first on The Namibian.
