By MoRris aron
The explosion of information communication technology in the local scene has led to the creation of a business opportunity in one of the most previously least thought of areas – data recovery.
Even as data recovery re-structures as a must have information communication technology service, telltale signs indicate a multi-billion shilling market segment that is yet to be exploited fully.
Experts say that the market for data recovery business has been growing at the same pace as mobile phone penetration, which is now slightly more than half of the Kenyan population – in addition to millions more who own a laptop or a computer of sorts.
In addition, with more and more people resorting to technology, the sphere for data recovery business has also expanded.
It is with these in mind that company after company has been trying to cash in on multi billion business.
The pioneer in the data recovery business, East African Data Handlers has grown from a Sh5 million investment to turnover of over Sh100 million within two years.
“What most organisations and individuals are slowly beginning to understand is that the security and recovery of data is key if not the only thing,” said George Njoroge, Managing Director of East African Data Handlers
“All our information is on devices, phones, computers, tablets and pcs. What happens if this devices fail or are lost as they are bound to?”
Contacts
The firm, which started with a service to assist recover data from destroyed hard disks or laptops recently moved to launch a service that allows mobile phone subscribers to recover lost data including call records, text and contacts from their handsets.
The technology is capable of recovering 100 per cent of data from formatted, deleted or damaged mobile devices.
The product guarantees recovery of information lost through damages and deleted data for up to five years at a Sh6,500 depending on the extent of loss and the number of man-hours for the recovery.
“Most Kenyans are using mobile devices to receive and send information ... most data has moved to our phone and increased the issue of data loss, and we have moved in to tap into this opportunity,” said Njoroge.
This is the latest, in its data recovery series of products that include server, file, digital photo, encrypted and database recovery.
The interest in data business has been witnessed with a number of established firms coming up with innovative data back up services.
The market has a number of back-up services where mobile phone users can store information in external servers commonly known as clouds from where information can be retrieved.
Safaricom is piloting ‘Okoa SIM,’ a contact back-up service that allows users to back-up information on the cards in the cloud, making it possible for subscribers to retrieve the contacts and other data in case of phone damage or loss.
