LATIN America and the Caribbean will see 18.5 per cent growth in cloud services this year, according to popular American IT research and advisory firm Gartner.

Cloud services enable local businesses to avoid costly investment in IT infrastructure, such as servers and software licences, by using the resources managed by a telecomunications company rather than buying expensive computing equipment and software.

The projections for growth in demand for cloud services and the desire by businesses to cut communications costs has prompted Jenson Sylvester to push those services locally.

The director of government and strategic accounts at Columbus Communications said that about 100 of Columbus Business Solutions’ commercial customers currently use different aspects of the company’s cloud.

Sylvester claims that his company’s cloud voice solution can save users 10 to 15 per cent of the cost of putting in and maintaining a PBX system, whle specific institutions that use the company’s services have saved about 30 per cent of their total cost of ownership for the solution.

“You would have to go out and procure these services that would sit in your office; it means you will have to find money upfront,” he said. “You would have to ensure you have the right staff contingent to support all of this equipment.”

Ubiquity of technology will also become a normal way of life, Sylvester reckons.

More specifically, Columbus is starting to see increasing numbers of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) — multiple devices integrated into one device — being used in Jamaica.

“More and more of the average business user will want user integration as the standard, to be able to manage all aspects of their business and personal life from one device,” he said.

According to Sylvester, schools are already calling for Internet and opportunities for students to take their devices to school.

“I expect that this will be normal for Jamaican businesses and other sectors such as education in the next five years,” he said.

With BYOD, it now means that security is more important, robust and scalable Internet is going to be critical.

“So the capacity is limitless, because of the fibre-optic cable that we have put in place and that supports the provision of our cloud services,” he added.

The UK-born Jamaican says he brings varied expertise and lessons learned in other markets, paired with an understanding of Jamaica’s culture.

“There is a very personal importance to be able to deliver the best solutions to companies in Jamaica and the Caribbean,” he said.