\u00a0with the headline: \u201cIs the internet maturing?\u201d The author referred to the first airline tickets being sold online and said the internet was \u2018going ordinary\u2019 \u2013 in other words, no longer the playground of the tech-savvy, but more ubiquitous in the average Joe\u2019s life.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nCloud, say experts, is going ordinary too. \u201cCloud, just like the internet back in the day, is revolutionising the way people think about their infrastructure,\u201d says Andrew Cruise, Managing Director of Routed, a local VMware Cloud Verified and VMware Principal Partner<\/span>.\u00a0\u201cThe conversation really started changing during the pandemic. Before, people had a bad understanding of cloud \u2013 they\u2019d only ever heard of cloud hyperscalers like Google and Azure and thought it was only meant for developers. Now, businesses are starting to see and understand that there are different types of cloud, each with its own ideal use case. They\u2019re becoming more mature in their outlook.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHyperscalers are suited to application redesigns, he adds, whereas local providers like Routed tend to focus on enterprises wanting to get rid of the weight of hardware around their necks. \u201cServer rooms and data centres are a huge cost and require specialist skills to maintain \u2013 skills that are in very short supply. Cloud slashes those costs in the long term and comes with expert support. It\u2019s also more secure than your own infrastructure and, while the cloud won\u2019t stop ransomware, it will make data easier to recover. The right type of cloud solves those fundamental business issues.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLee<\/span>\u00a0Syse,\u00a0Lead Cloud Solutions Architect for the Cloud Providers business at VMware Sub-Saharan Africa<\/span>, agrees. \u201cCloud used to be this buzzword, and when people talked about it, they were\u00a0referring to the shiny native services in which hyperscalers specialise. These native services work great for new application development but are extremely difficult to refactor applications into. Over the past couple of years, we\u2019ve seen interesting shifts. Large enterprises and telcos have started asking for cloud business solutions even if they aren\u2019t fully moving over to the cloud yet. They want the cloud experience and the benefits in their own data centres \u2013 such as software procured on consumption models or having the complete platform delivered as a service. They\u2019re looking to local providers and want fit-for-purpose solutions. Cloud conversations became more mature because people now better understand how it can benefit their specific business.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn some ways, however, South Africa is still lagging behind other markets, says Cruise. \u201cThe local market is<\/span>\u00a0behind the curve in terms of cloud penetration, but it\u2019s useful to distinguish between different kinds of workloads here. The market for workloads born in the cloud, such as websites and mobile applications, is growing quite well organically. But enterprise apps, such as line-of-business applications that are accessed internally, are typically still being run on-premise. One big reason for this is internet penetration. For cloud to be used to its fullest extent, you need ubiquitous fast, reliable and affordable internet \u2013 something that has been lacking in this country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n
People\u2019s desire for cloud and the reality they\u2019re facing are different things, adds Syse. \u201cThe shift to cloud must be well timed. Some things in data centres are simply not cloud-ready yet. Other considerations include hardware lifecycles, security processes, and the fact that some technologies are not straightforward to move. Other times it\u2019s a lack of skill. So, until those issues are ironed out, businesses are looking for some cloud benefits to start ticking those boxes as they get their heads around a more comprehensive move.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn some cases, businesses are also realising that some workloads will never be suited to cloud, adds Cruise. \u201cThis could include workloads that need to be kept on-premises for compliance reasons. But, importantly, the market is starting to make those distinctions and taking steps towards more hosted solutions where it makes sense.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nA fantastic sign of market maturity is that businesses are realising the importance of using local providers, says Syse. \u201cSouth Africa might be behind the curve in terms of uptake, but certainly not when it comes to expertise. Businesses are starting to see this \u2013 and the fact that\u00a0<\/span>local knowledge is crucial when it comes to laws, compliance, and understanding of the local landscape.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cInterestingly, every\u00a0time a new hyperscaler launches in the country, we see local cloud providers\u2019 businesses growing. They welcome the international competition because it\u2019s contributing to a more mature market,\u201d notes Cruise.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 In 1999, CNN published an\u00a0article\u00a0with the headline: \u201cIs the internet maturing?\u201d The author referred to the first airline tickets being sold online and said the internet was \u2018going ordinary\u2019 \u2013 in other words, no longer the playground of the tech-savvy, but more ubiquitous in the average Joe\u2019s life. \u00a0 Cloud, say experts, is going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,326,300,303,82,83,334],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-security","category-society","category-sponsored","category-technology","category-technology-trends","category-telecoms"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/techandbiz.com.ng\/tab-backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}