Airtel Business partners with Cisco to secure internet for SMEs in Africa

Airtel Africa, a leading telecommunications and mobile money services provider with a presence in 14 African countries, has announced that its B2B provider, Airtel Business, has formed a new partnership with Cisco to provide secure internet access to SMEs in Africa as part of their digital transformation journeys.

Airtel Africa’s fixed connectivity solutions will be combined with Cisco Umbrella, a cloud-based, plug-and-play security solution. Businesses’ online transaction channels will be secure as a result of the combination. The service will be accessible in Kenya, Uganda, Congo-Brazzaville, and Madagascar at first, before being expanded to the remainder of Airtel Africa’s markets.

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the move to e-commerce and cashless transactions in Africa, which has the fastest expanding digital consumer market. As more SMEs embrace these platforms, they will be exposed to a growing number of digital dangers, ranging from surveillance to critical infrastructure interruption and delays caused by cyber assaults and malware, necessitating the need to secure themselves and their customers.

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“Internet penetration is rising across Africa, and systems are even more connected as the digital transformation drives growth amongst organizations,” said Luc Servant, Group Enterprise Director, Airtel Business at Airtel Africa.

We empower SMEs and entrepreneurs across Africa with their end-to-end digital presence and a secure, reliable internet to defend them from foreign assaults through our cooperation with Cisco.”

Cisco Umbrella is a single unified security service that simplifies threat and alert monitoring and management. Umbrella assures fewer infections, which results in less remediation time and downtime, as well as cost savings.

DNS Layer Security, Secure Web Gateway, Cloud-Delivered Firewall (CDFW), Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB), and Interactive Threat Intel are all included in Umbrella, which is powered by Talos, the world’s biggest privately-owned threat intelligence agency.

All of these services may be accessed over the cloud, resulting in a Safeguard Access Secure Edge (SASE) architecture that can secure SDWAN installations easily.

Cisco’s Umbrella can fill in the gaps for small business cybersecurity teams who are possibly overwhelmed with the prospect of managing complicated cybersecurity protection on top of operating a business, while also understanding it is time to upgrade their security equipment to something stronger.

“We are excited to collaborate with Airtel Africa to bring this fast, flexible, and effective security solution to businesses on the continent,” said Cisco Client Partner Vikas Sharma. It integrates several security tasks, allowing organizations to safeguard devices, remote users, and facilities from anywhere in the world. This is exactly what African SMEs require as they begin their digital transformation journeys.”