In a slow-growing, uncertain business environment, heavy investments in IT infrastructure could prove risky. On the other hand, organisations need to modernise their infrastructure to become more agile, scalable and AI-enabled in order to grow. The solution is to move from a capex to an opex model for IT asset procurement, and the perfect time to do so is at the start of a new infrastructure renewal cycle.
This is according to Ives Li, Solution Architect at Huawei Cloud South Africa, who says: “The beginning of an infrastructure renewal cycle offers a strategic window for organisations to modernise their IT foundations, instead of reinvesting in ageing on-premises systems.”
Cutting-edge technologies without the capex
Li says: “Post-COVID, the economic situation around the world has worsened and the costs of both hardware and specialist skills have increased. This means organisations need to invest much more money on hardware development and maintenance than before. When legacy infrastructure approaches end of life, enterprises can seize the opportunity to transition to cloud, shifting from capex-heavy investments to flexible, scalable, opex models. In addition to freeing revenues for business growth, moving to cloud platforms like Huawei Cloud also provide access to cutting-edge technologies such as AI, big data and containerisation, which are difficult and expensive to deploy in traditional on-premises environments.
“Against this background, we see a growing strategy shift with more organisations looking to cloud transformation. Among its benefits are that cloud infrastructure is more standardised, scalable and easy to use, and it can cost less than traditional infrastructure. Most organisations moving to cloud are taking a hybrid approach; however, they’re weighing up the cost benefits and compliance considerations around each workload,” he says.
AI on tap
On-premises infrastructure and resources for harnessing AI could prove prohibitively expensive for most businesses, he notes. “Organisations would need their own GPUs, dedicated cabinets in their data centres and expert resources to train the AI models. This could set a business back as much as $1 million a year. There are also significant power costs to consider when running infrastructure to support AI on-premises. Cloudification is a key trend as organisations leverage AI because we provide cost-effective AI infrastructure and organisations don’t need to take on the task of training the AI.”
Robust, cost-effective hybrid cloud
Li highlights Huawei Cloud’s robust, reliable public cloud and Huawei Cloud Stack private cloud solutions as the ideal options for organisations seeking to balance innovation and agility with control and compliance.
“With Huawei Cloud public cloud, the costs and resources of day-to-day maintenance and management move to the public cloud service provider. We offer automated monitoring tools and a dedicated backend team to help you to monitor your infrastructure, and it’s easy to scale at the click of a button. The Huawei Cloud Stack, our full stack hybrid cloud solution, offers the Huawei Cloud DNA on-premises, with a managed services option. With Huawei Cloud as part of your hybrid cloud infrastructure, you reduce business risk and manage costs more effectively.”
Risk-free cloud migration
Li concedes that some organisations may be reluctant to move to cloud because of their dependence on legacy systems and applications.
He says: “Cloud migration can present potential challenges like downtime, data loss, compliance violations and the need for skills transformation within the customer’s IT teams. In addition, some legacy applications may not be cloud compatible without refactoring, and network configurations or security policies often need to be redesigned when you move to cloud. But at Huawei Cloud, we also address these risks through robust migration frameworks that include automated discovery tools, secure data transfer protocols and professional services. We also provide training and post-migration optimisation support to ensure a smooth transition. By taking a structured approach and leveraging our global best practice, clients can avoid risks and maximise the long-term benefits of moving to cloud.”
Huawei Cloud has enabled leading enterprises and public sector organisations to undertake seamless cloud migrations from on-premises to cloud or cloud to cloud, to start modernising and transforming their operations.
Li says: “Huawei Cloud provides comprehensive migration tools for every layer: for example, from the virtual machine, the computing layer, we provide a server migration service. A customer can leverage it very easily to migrate their on-premises server to cloud. We also have object storage migration and block storage migration. If customers are using platform as a service, Huawei Cloud can also organise a professional team, including developers, product managers and architects to support customers in designing the migration plan for those complicated products.”
He notes that in addition to an expert team available to support customers in-country, Huawei Cloud can also bring in its international sector and solution experts to travel to South Africa to support complex migrations.
“Huawei Cloud offers a comprehensive solution – not just cloud infrastructure,” he says. “We bring more than technology to the country: we bring international expertise, experience and support.”
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