Dell is aggressively going after the South African enterprise market with its Fluid Data storage solutions. The company's South African wing held an event for clients and the press in Sandton this month, where reps pushed the company's data center storage optimization technology, MyBroadband reported.

Tony Wand, Dell storage and solutions director for emerging markets, said during the event: "I think we've made some very smart investments along the way and we're using great IP. In addition, Ocarina Networks is developing some of the best compression software I have ever seen."

Dell bought Ocarina about one year ago for its "content-aware" deduplication technology, which it said at the time would be included in its storage systems.

Fluid Data is a storage solution that automates management and virtualization of the customer's data and allows for scaling when needed. The entire infrastructure is automated and managed with a single tool. The solution automatically determines which storage tiers each block of data should reside on and moves them accordingly.

Market research firm IDC expects government investments to drive most IT spending in South Africa in 2011. IDC analyst Jebin George said he expected IT spending in the South African public sector to grow steadily through 2015.

Most of the spending will be driven by eGovernment initiatives, as government bodies look for operational efficiency and for cost-cutting measures.

South Africa has the most advanced economy on the African continent, according to IDC. The country's economy showed strong positive growth rates from 2000 through 2009, when its GDP contracted 1.7% because of a sharp decline in international trade.

Hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2010, however, gave the entire economy a big boost during the recession, making it stand out among emerging markets.