Cisco's cloud strategy does not include becoming a cloud service provider. Instead, the network platform provider plans to help other organisations build cloud infrastructures for themselves, as well as help service providers build cloud service infrastructures to offer to other customers.
This is according to Val Moodley, Cisco Systems' regional manager for data centre and virtualisation. According to Moodley, cloud computing is the next major change that the Internet is undergoing.
However, she stressed that cloud computing is still in its infancy. She explained that while Google and Amazon are further on in the development of their cloud strategies, most companies have not figured out what their cloud strategies will be.
She said the migration to cloud computing begins with consolidation and then virtualisation, which allows organisations to build similar platforms into a common pool. According to her, most companies are still at this stage.
Moodley said consumers are driving online change because they want to use their own devices, and they want connectivity. She added that another driver is the growth of information. Moreover, Moodley pointed out, data has experienced a 120% growth rate in the last few years, and Cisco predicts that in 2013, going into 2014, 90% of Internet traffic will be video. She said all of these drivers will influence the infrastructure that will be needed to cater for these changes.
Meads said cloud computing would enable businesses to balance their operational and capital expenses by allowing them to better manage these costs. According to him, cloud computing can also advance education in SA because it would provide the architecture to deliver the same level of education to all schools, and give teachers access to shared content.
Meads also identifies emerging markets as a key area where Cisco will focus. He argued that emerging markets have been a growth engine for Cisco over the past six years, and remain at the forefront of the company's strategy. He said, in SA, Cisco is working with the public and private sectors in driving networking technology to help transform the way in which people in SA can receive healthcare and education.
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