[kictanet] Faith in local web hosting

Wed Nov 28 08:20:46 EAT 2007

It is interesting how we tend to have such short memories, the IXP issue should have been resolved 4 years ago when the ISPs where instead busy fighting Telkom, of which if my memory serves me right you were right in the middle of your response thus does not resonate genuineness.

The exchange point needs to seat at the most central location and since 90% of the links used to access the various hosting locations pass through Telkom that becomes the most cost effective and LOGICAL location.  Alternatively host is at CCK and provide all hosting companies with free high speed links.

We unfortunately as Kenyans have not overcome the blame game approach to forgetting an issue, the ISPs and CCK are wholly and individually responsible for this country not moving forward technologically.  The ministry is equally to blame for not playing its part.  The answers from the parties concerned on the issue of local content and hosting is beginning to sound like a broken CD.

Please lets move the exchange point, make is available to all and stop this private club mentality give genuinely and you shall prosper.

Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd
Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
KEnya 
Tel: +254722511225

----- Original Message ----
From: Joseph Mucheru <mucheru at google.com>
To: robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
Sent: Monday, 26 November, 2007 12:29:43 PM
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Faith in local web hosting

Hi Eric and Washington,

There is another way to look at this.
Why is it cheaper overseas? the obvious answer is that bandwidth there
is local. In which case the hosting companies are not charged high fees
for bandwidth. The infact primarily pay for peering with other
networks. In our case we are yet to give hosting companies access  to
the IXP.

One way to solve this is for ISPs to provide an "unbundled" hosting service;
a) Local part $x per MB
b) International part $x per MB
c) Rack Space $x

With
such a setup it is much easier for webhosting companies to emerge and
be very creative and at the same time compete with international
players. This would make the business case better for most hosting
business and they would not have to pay the high costs. Right now the
high bandwidth cost is still paid for by the consumer since they still
have to access the internationally hosted sites via the ISP.

Joe Mucheru

On Nov 26, 2007 7:48 AM, Eric Osiakwan <eric at afrispa.org> wrote:

Dear Mr. Washington,

You have stated the obvious which is the challenge but let me try to share some light on how to solve the problem.

It is really a chicken an egg situation, the localhosting business would develop based on demand but like you said demand is relative to cost.

However in the interest of developing our countries and continent if we all commit to having country code top level domain (in this case .ke) and host them locally, the demand would trigger supply.

On the other hand if the local entrepreneurs can invest in infrastructure and based on market study provide competitive rates (with the generic TLDs) then again the supply could trigger the demand.

Having said that, i have noticed something under the sun, which is that for some reason African just dont like using what other Africans produce so in some ways the former strategy would work better if we deal with the attitudinal change. 

Eric here

On 26 Nov 2007, at 08:35, Odhiambo Washington wrote:

On Nov 26, 2007 8:03 AM, robert yawe <robertyawe at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Hi all,

I have raised this issue before when I did a search and found out that the

CCK web site was hosted overseas and thus how can we expect them to monitor
the service quality levels of the ISP's.

On Sunday I visited the Kibaki web site, I experienced unstable audio
streaming so I decided to find out where the site was hosted, yes you guest
it overseas.

  The other 2 presidential candidates web sites are no better
they are not locally hosted.  Is this a reflection of who the targets of
this web sites are?

The Kibaki site is developed by one 3Mice, if I remember right, which has
some association with newly appointed ICT Board Managing Director Kokubo.

Regards
 Robert Yawe
KAY System Technologies Ltd

Phoenix House, 6th Floor
P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200
KEnya

It's not the faith the people have in local hosting, but rather the
cost factor. Last time I looked at this web hosting biz, one company
was charging KES 1,000+VAT per month, which was what was though to be

competitive. Another one entered into the fray with hype about reduced
costing charges, but I am not sure how much business they managed to

pick. All the same, their charges did not compare with what is charged
internationally (I mean in Europe and the US).
Websites is not something that has caught up with many Kenyans,

otherwise the volumes would help sustain such businesses locally.
I believe the lack of volumes is one of the factors that makes

entities like 3Mice to host overseas. Top-notch Kenyan techies have
been hosting their Blog with blogspot (overseas). Bandwidth costs is
another. In Europe and the US, individuals can afford to connect

10MBps in their kitchens while in Kenya, that kind of bandwidth can
only be purchased by ISPs.
One last question though: Do you know any reliable webhosting company

that hosts it's websites locally, and has reliable and efficient
access to those websites? If there is one, they are not marketing

themselves enough.

--

Best regards,
Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
Nairobi,KE
+254733744121/+254722743223

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Joe Mucheru
Office Lead, East Africa
Google Kenya 
7th Floor, Purshottam Place
Westlands Road
P O Box 66217 - 00800 Westlands 
Nairobi, 
KENYA

+254 20 360 1701 Office
+254 20 360 1100 Fax
+254 20 360 1000 Switch Board (Regus)

+254 722522135 Mobile

http://www.google.com

This email may be confidential or privileged.  If you received this communication by mistake, please don't forward it to anyone else, please erase all copies and attachments, and please let me know that it went to the wrong person.  Thanks.

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