Johannesburg, 11 Jan 2011
Fully two-thirds of South African businesses are either currently using, or planning, cloud computing initiatives, according to the preliminary findings of an in-depth survey on the state of cloud computing in South Africa.
According to the “Cloud Computing Market Dynamics in Middle East and Africa (MEA)” report from Springboard Research, cloud understanding is surprisingly high in the region, compared to other growth markets such as Asia Pacific.
Cloud computing is defined as a collection of IT-enabled resources and capabilities that can be delivered via the Internet or an internal network as a service.
Security remains a key area of concern for cloud computing in South Africa - but a large percentage of respondents (45%) believe cloud computing is either more secure than, or just as secure as, on-premise solutions.
The report, conducted in conjunction with software maker Microsoft, found that cloud adoption varies slightly by organisation size. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), particularly in the 100-299 employee range, are the most aggressive adopters, with 71% currently using or actively planning to adopt cloud-based solutions. Meanwhile, 63% of large organisations are currently using or actively planning cloud initiatives.
“The beauty of cloud computing is that one of its immediate benefits is that it frees up significant resources that can be redirected to other areas,” said Microsoft South Africa managing director Mteto Nyati.
“Many business leaders today are faced with the problem that 80% of the budget is spent on keeping the lights on - that is, maintaining existing services and infrastructure - and cloud eases this pain dramatically.”
Nyati said that although there were significant opportunities for industries like telecoms, finance and the public sector to take advantage of the cost-saving potential and flexibility presented by the cloud, many were still in the early stages of adoption. The report suggests that public sector (81%) and telecoms/media (75%) consider cloud most relevant to their organisations.
Although storage (33%) is the single most widely used solution in the South African cloud, a growing number of respondents are using solutions across the overlapping product categories of Web conferencing, instant messaging, collaboration and e-mail.
JJ Milner, MD of hosted infrastructure provider Global Micro, which has been providing cloud-based services since 1999, said skills levels would be a significant factor in driving cloud adoption. More than half (51%) of South African respondents believe channel partners are helpful when buying cloud-based solutions and services.
“The cloud space is evolving so fast that there's a clear gap emerging between the 'knows' and the 'know-nots',” said Milner.
“Companies are being swept along by the promise of cost-savings, but the vendors that thrive in this space are going to be the ones that best understand their clients' needs and provide the right services for their specific businesses. There's a lot of hype out there, and it's important that companies find a partner who knows what they're doing.”
The report was based on interviews with 40 small, 30 medium and 30 large enterprises in South Africa. Respondents consisted of approximately 83% IT decision-makers and 17% business decision-makers in banking/financial services, telcos and manufacturing, oil and gas, public sector and 19% other businesses.
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