Cloud computing is seeing massive uptake worldwide, and South Africa is no exception. As cloud solutions have gained in popularity, so have the offerings from local and international vendors, with many local companies availing themselves of public cloud solutions from US companies such as Amazon Web Services.
According to analyst group IDC, the bulk of South African corporate spend on cloud will be on public cloud services over the next few years, but it forecasts an increase in spending on private cloud services, adding that "hybrid solutions will likely become the preferred cloud option for many organisations". This is the result of a number of factors, says Richard Vester, Director of Cloud Services at EOH, not least of which is the Rand-dollar exchange rate.
He adds while many local companies are evaluating or using international public cloud offerings, the cost of the solutions is just the first of many factors they should take into consideration. "Public cloud has been touted as a 'one-size-fits-all' solution, offering lower costs, scalability, and all of the other benefits associated with cloud. However, businesses should ask themselves how easy it is to provision a public cloud versus a managed hosted cloud when most public clouds are based internationally."
According to Vester, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, because every company has unique requirements, technologies and implementations. As a result, each company's cloud solution should offer the right combination of price, performance, security and availability to meet their business goals. The right solution will therefore depend on things like workloads, budget and other technology requirements such as business continuity and disaster recovery.
"Managed hosted clouds are the optimal solution for most South African businesses because they provide the same cost benefits as public cloud offerings while also ensuring the same level of security and reliability offered by private clouds. In addition to combining the speed and ease of deployment of a public cloud with the benefits of a private cloud, managed hosted clouds also offer local support," says Vester.
"Many local businesses have encountered the challenges associated with cloud provisioning from an international provider, including time zone differences and fluctuating exchange rates. A managed hosted cloud services provider can provision and maintain an entire cloud infrastructure locally through a single monitoring interface, while providing readily available local support."
He adds that by offering the best of both public and private cloud worlds, managed hosted cloud solutions provide a level of flexibility that can't be achieved by either on its own. Public clouds, with their focus on lowered costs and shared infrastructure, are geographically dispersed, which can lead to data residency issues. Private clouds offer guaranteed uptime, without the scalability and flexibility enabled by public cloud solutions.
"Managed hosted clouds offer the perfect fit for local enterprises. In addition to hands-on management of the infrastructure, having a local provider guarantees a solution that is geared to the needs of the local market, offers world-class enterprise-level infrastructure and services, and ensures that there are no unexpected deployment challenges or irrelevant SLA clauses that could cause complications," Vester concludes.
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