of Intelligent CIO Africa .

As countries on the African continent begin to ease lockdown restrictions and are opening up their economies due to the COVID-19 pandemic , we are seeing the numbers of new infections stabilising . What is even more encouraging is that the death rate remains relatively low across the African continent compared to other parts of the world .

While this is great for Africa as it tries to emerge from a period of economic inactivity , those that are returning to work must not drop their guard against this virus but continue to observe all the health guidelines so that the continent does not witness a second or even third wave of the pandemic as we have seen happening elsewhere .

On the IT front , most organisations have been concerned about the impact of the Coronavirus and how it has changed the workplace with most enterprises embracing a hybrid model which offers the flexibility to work remotely ( home ) or office .

And that ’ s why we have articles in this edition of the magazine addressing the issues of remote working and how organisations are adjusting to the ‘ new normal ’.

Gracing the cover of this edition ’ s magazine is Dr Stanley Mpofu , CIO , Wits University .

Challenged with legacy IT infrastructure , onpremise data centre and a perennial problem of the Learning Management System ( LMS ) going down during critical times , South Africa ’ s University of Witwatersrand saw an urgent requirement to move its Sakai LMS to the cloud . To overcome this challenge , the university had to migrate its LMS to Amazon Web Services ( AWS ) Cloud to facilitate online teaching and digital learning .

“ There was an urgent requirement to move Sakai LMS from Wits on-premise data centre to the cloud to enhance and facilitate online teaching and learning ,” Dr Mpofu told us .

“ The university then set sights on online learning due to the COVID-19 lockdown as well as ensure availability , security and compliance of its online learning platform . AWS Cloud came at the right time for Wits University in that a perennial problem of the Sakai LMS going down during critical times became a thing of the past .”

You can read more by turning to page 50 .

Elsewhere in the magazine , Connected Conservation has expanded to Kenya after effectively implementing IoT technology at a

private game reserve near the Kruger National Park in South Africa . Building on that success of protecting rhino poaching in South Africa , Connected Conservation is now in Kenya to support six different conservancies in the East African country . NTT Ltd and Cisco are behind the technology collaboration that aims to support more than 200,000 acres of land , inhabited by 14 % of Kenya ’ s rhino population .

You will find this inspiring conservation and country focus story on page 42 .

In this edition , we have all your favourite features , opinion and insight pieces and analysis from across the continent . You can also read daily news updates on our website at www . intelligentcio . com / africa /.

And kindly , don ’ t forget if you would like to get in touch please email me at manda @ lynchpinmedia . co . uk .

Once again , I would also like to wish you a great month ahead and do hope you will enjoy the read !

Manda Banda Editor www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO

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