Nutanix Cloud has empowered Nigeria based service provider CWG to optimise its pricing strategies, passing cost efficiencies to its customers, while maintaining profitable margins. CWG’s private cloud infrastructure built on Nutanix ensures uninterrupted service for customers, a critical factor for its payments, gaming revenue, and ERP applications.
Facing rising customer expectations for agility, scalability, and cost efficiency, CWG Plc headquartered in Nigeria, recognised that its existing technology infrastructure needed a significant overhaul. The traditional approach of relying on hardware procurement and fragmented systems was no longer sufficient to meet the needs of its diverse client base. Delays in deployment, unpredictable costs, and increasing demands for secure, localised solutions placed mounting pressure on CWG to rethink its operational strategy.
As a leading services provider with a presence in Uganda, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Dubai, CWG has for over 30 years provided solutions spanning managed services, software and hardware. Its pioneering spirit is exemplified by its introduction of managed services to Nigeria over a decade ago, a move that solidified its position as a dominant force in the technology sector.
This commitment to innovation is underpinned by CWG’s long-standing presence on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, a testament to its ability to adapt and thrive in a competitive market.
CWG offers a range of services, including Infrastructure as a Service, IaaS and Software as a Service, SaaS, delivered through its private cloud infrastructure. This setup provides clients with access to scalable, secure solutions that can be rapidly deployed and efficiently managed. Whether supporting government agencies with gaming revenue platforms or helping businesses streamline operations with ERP systems, CWG’s solutions are tailored to meet the unique demands of Africa’s diverse markets.
“Our business is fast-paced and diverse, and we need to always stay ahead of the innovation curve. This necessitated a platform that could give us speed, reliability, and control over our costs. Our customers rely on us to meet their needs quickly and effectively, and we cannot afford to fall short,” says Afolabi Sobande, Chief Operating Officer at CWG.
Pain points and business challenges
The complexity of CWG’s operations created significant challenges. Customers across various sectors required tailored solutions deployed rapidly, but traditional hardware procurement processes were too slow to meet these demands. The costs of these were also becoming non-competitive.
Government agencies, for instance, depended on CWG’s gaming revenue platforms to collect revenue from casinos across the various states in Nigeria efficiently, while banks and small businesses relied on CWG’s ERP systems to support their operations. The inability to deliver infrastructure swiftly was a growing concern.
Financial predictability added another layer of difficulty. As a service provider, CWG needed to ensure its total cost of ownership was sustainable over the long term and that the costs of its services would not become inflated.
“Our business depends on cost optimisation. We needed to know that the solutions we invested in would allow us to plan our expenses accurately while maintaining our commitment to high-quality service delivery,” says Sobande.
In 2020, CWG partnered with Nutanix to transform its operations. By adopting the Nutanix Cloud Platform, CWG built a robust private cloud infrastructure that became the foundation of its service offerings. The platform’s scalability and reliability allowed CWG to host a variety of applications, including ERP systems, gaming solutions, and payment platforms.
Implementing Nutanix Cloud
“With Nutanix, we gained the ability to deploy infrastructure at an unprecedented speed. A customer can call us with a specific requirement, and within 30 minutes, we can deliver exactly what they need. This level of responsiveness has completely changed how we operate. It also gave us the cost visibility we needed,” says Sobande.
The platform’s flexibility enabled CWG to align with regulatory requirements for data sovereignty, particularly in regions where compliance is critical. The private cloud environment ensured that sensitive customer data remained secure and accessible within local jurisdictions.
The Nutanix Cloud Platform is an enterprise-grade hybrid multicloud solution designed to simplify IT operations while delivering scalability, resilience, and performance. By integrating compute, storage, networking, and virtualisation into a software-defined infrastructure, it eliminates complexity, enhances security, and enables seamless workload mobility across private and public clouds.
At its core, Nutanix Acropolis Operating System, AOS provides a distributed, hyperconverged architecture that ensures high availability, scalability, and self-healing capabilities. The platform supports multiple hypervisors, including Nutanix AHV, VMware ESXi, and Microsoft Hyper-V, giving organisations flexibility in managing their virtualised and containerised environments.
Prism, Nutanix’s AI-driven management console, automates infrastructure operations with intelligent monitoring, predictive analytics, and one-click simplicity.
To enhance security and networking, Flow enables microsegmentation and software-defined networking to protect applications from lateral threats. For cloud-native strategies, Karbon provides Kubernetes orchestration for modern container-based applications, while Era simplifies database lifecycle management with automated provisioning, patching, and cloning.
For hybrid and multicloud deployments, Nutanix Clusters extends workloads across AWS and Azure while maintaining operational consistency, reducing cloud migration complexity, and avoiding vendor lock-in. Xi Leap offers built-in disaster recovery, while Beam delivers cost governance and compliance insights to optimise cloud investments.
By leveraging a hybrid multicloud, software-defined approach, the Nutanix Cloud Platform helps enterprises accelerate digital transformation, modernise IT infrastructure, reduce operational overhead, and create a flexible, cloud-smart strategy that aligns with evolving business demands.
Post implementation benefits
The adoption of Nutanix has revolutionised CWG’s approach to service delivery. The agility of the platform has enabled the company to meet customer demands quickly, eliminating delays traditionally associated with hardware procurement and go-live. Customers now enjoy faster project timelines, with virtualised infrastructure ready for deployment almost immediately.
CWG’s private cloud enables rapid deployment of virtual machines and applications, allowing customers to start projects within minutes, enhancing project timelines and operational flexibility. The subscription model offers clear and predictable view of TCO over five years, empowering cost-efficient service delivery while cascading savings directly to customers.
“Cost optimisation is a core responsibility in my role, so understanding the total cost of ownership for our technology is critical. Nutanix allows us to maximise the value of investment while ensuring we can support our customers with competitive pricing. The key is that the cost savings we achieve through Nutanix cascade directly to our customers. By reducing the cost of providing our services, we are able to deliver greater value to them,” says Sobande.
“Nutanix’s subscription model is especially powerful because it provides predictability, over the next five years, I know exactly what our costs will be. That level of certainty makes planning and cost management far more effective, ultimately benefiting both us and our customers.”
This clarity has empowered CWG to optimise its pricing strategies, passing cost efficiencies on to its customers while maintaining healthy margins. Reliability and performance have also improved significantly. CWG’s private cloud infrastructure ensures uninterrupted service for its customers, a critical factor for applications such as gaming revenue solutions, payment platforms and ERP systems.
“Our customers often come to us with urgent needs, saying, I need these virtual machines quickly for a project. With Nutanix, we can confidently respond, give us 20 to 30 minutes, and it is ready. It is that straightforward. This ability to deliver quickly adds immense value for our customers,” says Sobande.
“For example, existing clients with new projects know they can start immediately without worrying about delays for sourcing hardware. They simply call us and specify their requirements, and we can provision the infrastructure almost instantly. This efficiency has become a significant part of the value we provide.”
The compatibility of the Nutanix Cloud Platform with CWG’s existing systems has further enhanced its value. The company can integrate new technologies effortlessly, enabling continuous innovation and the development of additional service offerings.
Moving forward CWG’s partnership with Nutanix marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter. The company plans to expand its private cloud footprint, integrating advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and analytics to further enhance its services.
Sobande is optimistic about the future: “Our relationship with Nutanix is not just a collaboration. It is a strategic alignment that supports our vision of driving technology innovation and harnessing new technologies across Africa.”
By leveraging Nutanix, CWG is not only addressing operational challenges but also setting a new standard for service excellence in Africa’s technology sector.
