Cloud RFP Checklist for African Enterprises

Cloud RFP Checklist for African Enterprises

Choosing a cloud provider is no longer just an IT procurement exercise. For African enterprises, banks, telcos, insurers, fintechs and public sector institutions, the cloud RFP is a strategic control point for resilience, data sovereignty, regulatory compliance, cost governance and digital growth.

A strong request for proposal helps you compare providers fairly, reduce implementation risk and avoid vague commitments that become expensive later. A weak RFP can lead to unclear responsibilities, unexpected connectivity costs, security gaps, migration delays and vendor lock-in.

This checklist is designed for African CIOs, CTOs, procurement teams, CISOs, risk leaders and transformation offices preparing a cloud RFP for infrastructure, backup, disaster recovery, networking, security or managed cloud services.

1. Define the business outcome before the technology

Start the RFP by explaining why the organisation is moving to cloud. Providers can propose better architectures when they understand the business requirement, not only the server count.

Include:

• The business drivers: data centre exit, core banking modernisation, citizen services, digital channels, analytics, backup resilience or regulatory readiness
• The expected users: employees, branches, agents, mobile customers, partners or public users
• The workloads in scope: production systems, databases, virtual machines, backup, disaster recovery, development environments or security services
• The target timeline and major dependencies
• Success measures such as improved recovery capability, faster provisioning, lower operational complexity or stronger data governance

Avoid asking only for the cheapest compute and storage. African enterprises need cloud platforms that can support compliance, connectivity, operational support and long-term scale.

2. Specify data residency and sovereignty requirements

Data residency is one of the most important cloud RFP topics in Africa. Regulators, boards and customers increasingly expect clarity about where data is stored, processed, backed up and accessed.

Your RFP should ask providers to state:

• The exact cloud regions or data centre locations available, including any Africa-based regions such as Accra where applicable
• Where primary data, replicas, snapshots and backups will reside
• Whether customer data can leave the selected jurisdiction or region
• Who can access infrastructure, systems and support tools
• How administrative access is controlled, logged and reviewed
• How the provider supports sector-specific requirements for banking, telecommunications, healthcare or public sector workloads

Do not accept vague answers such as data is stored in the cloud or data may be replicated globally. Ask for clear architecture diagrams, location commitments and operational controls.

3. Request detailed security evidence

Security claims must be supported by evidence. The RFP should require providers to explain their controls across infrastructure, platform, operations and customer access.

Ask for details on:

• Identity and access management, including multi-factor authentication and role-based access
• Encryption for data at rest and data in transit
• Key management options and separation of duties
• Network segmentation, firewalls, security groups and private connectivity
• Vulnerability management and patching processes
• Logging, monitoring and audit trail retention
• DDoS protection and perimeter security capabilities
• Incident detection, escalation and customer notification processes
• Security certifications, independent audits or compliance attestations where available

Also clarify the shared responsibility model. The provider may secure the cloud platform, while your team remains responsible for operating systems, applications, identities and data governance depending on the service model. Your RFP should require a responsibility matrix so there is no ambiguity after contract signing.

4. Assess compliance and regulatory alignment

African enterprises operate across multiple legal and regulatory environments. A bank in Ghana, a telco group operating across West Africa, or a government agency handling citizen data may have different obligations.

Your RFP should ask how the provider supports:

• Local data protection laws and cross-border transfer restrictions
• Financial services regulations and audit expectations
• Public sector hosting and procurement requirements
• Records retention and e-discovery needs
• Sector-specific reporting, audit and risk management processes
• Evidence gathering for internal audit, external audit and regulator reviews

Require the provider to describe how compliance evidence will be delivered. This may include architecture documents, audit reports, access logs, security policies, penetration testing summaries or compliance mappings. Do not assume that global certifications automatically satisfy local African regulatory requirements.

5. Include connectivity and network performance questions

Cloud performance in Africa depends heavily on connectivity. Latency, packet loss, last-mile reliability, peering and private links can determine whether a cloud project succeeds.

Your RFP should request information on:

• Available connectivity options from your offices, branches, data centres and contact centres
• Private network connectivity, VPN options and carrier interconnects
• Internet breakout design and redundancy
• Peering arrangements and traffic routing within Africa
• Network segmentation for production, disaster recovery, backup and management traffic
• Support for hybrid cloud and multi-site architectures
• Bandwidth sizing assumptions and expected traffic patterns

Ask providers to propose a target network design, not just a virtual machine catalogue. For banks, telcos and public sector platforms, secure and resilient network architecture is as important as compute capacity.

6. Define compute, storage and platform requirements clearly

Provide a structured inventory so suppliers can size accurately. If your workload data is incomplete, say so and ask providers to include a discovery phase.

Include:

• Number of servers or virtual machines
• Operating systems and versions
• CPU, memory and storage usage
• Database types and versions
• Peak transaction periods
• Application dependencies
• Licensing constraints
• Current backup sizes and retention policies
• Growth assumptions for the next 12, 24 and 36 months

For storage, ask about performance tiers, object storage, block storage, file storage, snapshot capabilities, immutability options and lifecycle policies. For compute, ask how resources are provisioned, resized, monitored and isolated.

7. Treat backup and disaster recovery as core requirements

Backup and disaster recovery are often added late, but they should be central to the cloud RFP. Cyber incidents, power issues, connectivity failures, human error and application faults can all disrupt critical services.

Ask providers to describe:

• Backup architecture and retention options
• Backup encryption and access controls
• Immutable or protected backup capabilities
• Disaster recovery design options across sites or regions
• Recovery testing process and frequency options
• How recovery objectives are defined, measured and reported
• Customer responsibilities during recovery events
• Support for failover, failback and runbook development

Do not request unrealistic recovery targets without understanding application architecture, data volume and budget impact. Instead, ask providers to propose practical options with clear assumptions.

8. Evaluate operational support and service management

A cloud RFP should test how the provider operates after deployment. Strong operations are critical for enterprise workloads.

Include questions on:

• Support hours and escalation paths
• Incident, problem and change management processes
• Monitoring and alerting responsibilities
• Maintenance notifications
• Customer portal or ticketing access
• Named technical contacts or account governance model
• Reporting frequency and service review meetings
• Knowledge transfer and documentation

Ask for sample reports, runbook templates and escalation workflows. You want to know how the provider behaves during incidents, not only during sales presentations.

9. Demand transparent pricing structure without focusing only on unit cost

Cloud pricing must be understandable, predictable and auditable. Your RFP should request a full commercial model without asking vendors to invent figures outside your scope.

Ask suppliers to separate:

• Compute charges
• Storage charges
• Backup and snapshot charges
• Data transfer and bandwidth charges
• Security services
• Managed services
• Migration services
• Support services
• Connectivity or third-party costs
• Professional services and training

Also ask what is included, what is excluded and what triggers additional charges. The goal is to compare total cost of ownership, not only the headline price of a virtual machine.

10. Check migration methodology and risk management

Many cloud projects fail because migration complexity is underestimated. Your RFP should require a practical migration approach.

Ask for:

• Discovery and assessment methodology
• Workload grouping and migration waves
• Dependency mapping
• Pilot migration plan
• Cutover approach
• Rollback planning
• Testing and validation steps
• Security hardening process
• Documentation and handover
• Post-migration optimisation

For regulated sectors, include audit checkpoints and change approval requirements. For public-facing systems, ask how downtime will be minimised and communicated.

11. Build a scoring matrix for fair evaluation

A clear scoring model reduces bias and helps procurement, technology and risk teams align. Consider weighting the evaluation across:

• Technical architecture and scalability
• Security and compliance
• Data residency and sovereignty
• Network design and performance
• Backup and disaster recovery
• Operational support
• Migration capability
• Commercial transparency
• Local presence and regional expertise
• Contract terms and governance

Do not let commercial score dominate the entire decision. A low-cost proposal with weak sovereignty, limited support or unclear security can become more expensive over time.

12. Watch for red flags in cloud RFP responses

Be cautious if a provider:

• Cannot state where data and backups will be stored
• Provides generic answers without architecture diagrams
• Avoids shared responsibility details
• Offers no clear incident escalation process
• Cannot explain connectivity options for your locations
• Provides pricing that excludes obvious operational components
• Has limited experience with regulated or mission-critical workloads
• Pushes a single architecture without understanding your risk profile
• Refuses to provide evidence for security or compliance claims

A good provider should welcome detailed questions. Enterprise cloud decisions require transparency.

Conclusion: use the RFP to buy confidence, not just capacity

For African enterprises, the best cloud RFP is practical, evidence-based and aligned to business risk. It should cover sovereignty, security, compliance, connectivity, backup, operations, migration and commercial transparency with equal seriousness.

DAAKYI Cloud helps African organisations design secure, sovereign and enterprise-ready cloud environments across compute, storage, networking, backup and security. If you are preparing a cloud RFP or reviewing vendor responses, contact DAAKYI Cloud to discuss a practical path for your workloads.