Looking to further secure its own infrastructure and deliver networking, security and communications services to enterprise customers in its home business territory of Africa, Seacom, which claims to be Africa’s leading internet connectivity supplier, has inked a deal with BT to take advantage of the UK-based global telco’s services, supplier relationships and global expertise to expand its portfolio of services aimed at African businesses.

Seacom launched Africa’s first broadband submarine cable system along the continent’s Eastern and Southern coasts in 2009, and regards itself as having grown to be the preferred partner for African businesses, network carriers and service providers. Moreover, since the launch of its business division, Seacom claims to have substantially grown its customer and partnership base to strengthen its offerings and serve customers beyond existing markets.

Through its ownership of what it called Africa’s most extensive ICT data infrastructure – including multiple subsea cables and a resilient, continent-wide IP-MPLS network – Seacom provides a suite of flexible, scalable and high-quality communications and cloud offerings that enable the growth of the continent’s economy.

Under the terms of the new partnership, Seacom said its customers will benefit from access to BT’s cloud security incident event management (SIEM) platform. It noted that in the current business environment, data, business applications and users live beyond an organisation’s traditional network. SIEM tools provide real-time visibility and monitoring across the organisation’s entire IT environment, providing what the company regards as an ideal security overlay to its existing ICT services.

BT’s cyber security practice has more than 3,000 cyber security experts whose mission is to help customers detect, analyse and quickly respond to cyber security incidents as they happen. The company’s client list includes a number of the world’s largest organisations, and it claims to protect them from “myriad” fast-evolving cyber threats with a global network of dedicated 24/7 security operations centres.

“We’re excited to form this strategic alliance with BT and see the combined value of what we bring to our respective markets,” said Seacom Group chief executive officer Oliver Fortuin.

“With Seacom’s global network and local presence, and BT’s global reach and expertise, we will be able to deliver a comprehensive portfolio of cloud, security and connectivity services that are reliable, scalable and at the cutting-edge of industry.”

Alessandro Adriani, director of system integrators and telecom service providers at BT’s Global unit, said: “We are thrilled to deliver BT’s world-class solutions to Seacom and to their customers across the African continent.

“The areas of secure multi-cloud connectivity, next-generation networking solutions and collaboration services are the sweet spot where Seacom and BT will combine their respective strengths.”