Experts in Ghana’s Geospatial Society have emphasised the need for the adoption of cloud computing across key sectors of organisations and the economy with the view of providing adoption trends and patterns for policy direction, practice and future research.
Cloud computing is defined as the use of hosted services such as data storage, servers, databases, networking and software over the internet.
Geomatics Engineer at the University of Mines and Technology in Tarkwa, Naa Dedei Tagoe delivering a presentation during a webinar emphasised the importance of cloud computing to Ghana’s economy.
“For instance, in terms of Information Technology, cloud computing reduces maintenance cost for systems and infrastructure. It also offers scalability of projects for instance for emerging startups. Another benefit of cloud computing is the flexibility and collaboration it brings to projects such as document sharing for example on Google Docs,” she explained.
“There is a need for organisations to adopt cloud computing because it provides business continuity especially if a business owner has to travel outside, once they have their data sets on the cloud, they can still access them and work from wherever they are,” she added.
The Geomatics Engineer further highlighted the competitive edge that cloud computing offers to businesses and organisations.
Prof. John Ayer of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology on his part said the adoption of cloud computing helps to save costs as many users are now able to store their data on devices and software as compared to other forms of storage.
“Rather than keeping files on a hard drive or local storage device, these important data can be stored on the internet using servers which may not be present with us. So, it means as long our devices have internet connectivity, it gives easy access to the data and programmes which saves cost and increases productivity,” Mr John Ayer added.
Mr. Boamah, Chairman of the occasion expressed gratitude for the in-depth knowledge delivered by the speakers and participants during the virtual session.
He however called for increased investment and involvement on the part of government and stakeholders in the advancement of the geospatial space.
The Ghana Geospatial Society is a body of professional geospatialists in the country that seek to create an enabling environment for the practice and advocacy of national demand for geospatial assignments and products.
The role of the GGS is to encourage the adoption and use of technology in strengthening government machinery, private sector development, academia etc.
The society is also mandated to duly inform its members of the global advancement in geospatial activities toward the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals.
The webinar was held on the theme; ‘Advancing the Role of Geospatial Cloud Computing in Ghana’s Economy, Society and Environment'.
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