In an era where data is the new oil, CloudZA is leading the charge in helping South African businesses harness the power of big data to drive smarter, faster decision-making. Through cutting-edge cloud infrastructure, strategic partnerships and a deep understanding of local challenges, CloudZA is transforming how organisations manage, secure and extract value from their data.
Unlocking the power of big data
CloudZA’s approach to big data is rooted in accessibility and scalability. “From a data perspective, it’s twofold,” explains Jonathan Oaker, Co-Founder of CloudZA. “We bring data closer to business insight tools so users can understand outputs more easily, and we optimise the data stage by centralising and virtualising data from multiple sources.”
This strategy is particularly impactful in South Africa, where legacy infrastructure often hampers data agility. By leveraging data lakes and object storage, CloudZA enables businesses to move away from costly, rigid databases and towards scalable, cost-effective solutions. “With S3, you’re no longer governed by terabytes; you can scale to petabytes and beyond,” Oaker adds.
Overcoming migration challenges
Migrating to the cloud is not without its hurdles. One of the most common issues is data silos and fragmentation. “Many organisations have multiple schemas, replication for disaster recovery and engineers working on branch data that ends up in production,” says Oaker. “This siloing is a major challenge.”
Matthew Nelson, Solutions Architect at CloudZA, highlights another critical barrier: “Compliance is a big concern. Organisations need to ensure data stays within borders and meets regulatory requirements. That’s why many are moving data back onshore.”
To address these challenges, CloudZA promotes open data formats and partners with global cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Its recent partnership with compliance software provider Scytale further strengthens its offering. “With Scytale, we can now deliver full compliance reports and penetration testing in just three days,” says Oaker. “It’s a game-changer.”
“CloudZA delivers the trusted cloud foundation, and Scytale adds the automated compliance engine on top. Together, we help organisations migrate faster, keep every workload secure, and breeze through audits. This frees teams from spreadsheet wrangling and gives them instant confidence that everything is audit-ready by default,” says Victor Lange, Head of Partnerships at Scytale.
Tailored solutions for public sector and enterprise
CloudZA’s impact extends beyond the private sector. Its work with public sector institutions, particularly in healthcare, showcases the transformative power of big data. “We’ve modernised legacy systems and enabled generative AI to analyse massive datasets, up to a terabyte per table,” Oaker shares. “This allows for real-time insights in natural language, even in local languages like isiXhosa and Afrikaans.”
This innovation is helping to bridge the skills gap in public institutions by making data more accessible and actionable. “We’re enabling staff to interact with data in a simplified, intuitive way,” he adds.
One standout case study involves a healthcare client where CloudZA delivered a 300% improvement in query efficiency. “We enabled fraud detection, sentiment analysis and life cycle tracking for patients,” says Oaker. “This allowed the organisation to optimise policy offerings and improve customer service.”
CloudZA also developed a proprietary tool called Chatty Cat, short for 'capture, analyse, transform'. “It’s a platform that lets users talk to any form of data (Excel, PDFs, databases) and build dashboards in real-time,” explains Oaker. “It’s enterprise-grade, ISO 42001-compliant and designed for secure, private use.”
Security and compliance at the core
With cyber threats on the rise, CloudZA takes a proactive approach to data security. “We use tools such as Orca, Trend Micro and Prowler to run multicloud vulnerability checks,” says Nelson. “We also ensure data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and we tailor security protocols to each client’s needs.”
As a well-architected AWS partner, CloudZA follows best practices across security, compliance and cost optimisation. “We don’t just migrate data, we ensure it's secure, compliant and aligned with business goals,” Oaker emphasises.
Looking ahead and trends
Looking to the future, CloudZA sees a growing trend in multicloud strategies, open data formats and real-time data ingestion. “2025 is the year of migration,” says Oaker. “Organisations are waking up to the power of cloud and the need for clean, secure data pipelines.”
His message to businesses is clear: “Reach out to us. We don’t charge to talk. We’re here to support you with off-the-shelf solutions, 24/7 support and a commitment to helping you grow.”
CloudZA is currently running a special offer covering professional services for qualifying new clients through August 2025, an opportunity for businesses to modernise their data infrastructure with expert guidance and minimal upfront cost.
Find out more here.
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