South Africa and Africa still have a long way to go before they become mature virtualisation markets.
So said Chris Norton, regional director for southern Africa at VMware, in an interview with ITWeb on the sidelines of the VMworld 2012 Europe conference, in Barcelona, yesterday.
"I think we still have a way to go in SA. SA is a developing market and we see a lot of opportunity for virtualisation uptake in the market," Norton pointed out.
He also believes that the adoption rate of virtualisation is quite steady in the country. "In some cases, we have some work to do, but in other cases, we have some organisations that have fully virtualised.
"Some people in SA are running 90% of their workloads virtualised and some are running 5%. It really depends on the level of maturity of the company. If you have to draw an average on the organisations that have bought virtualisation technology, you will get an average of 60% having their systems virtualised."
Regarding challenges, Norton says security is a major concern in the South African market. He added that the rate at which the technology is being delivered to the market is another concern for some of the company's partners.
The skills shortage is another problem limiting the adoption of virtualisation in the local market, said Norton.
However, he added, the rate of adoption by SMEs is quite impressive in SA. "We have a spike in the order rate by SMEs and we also have a lot of transactions in the SME market."
On the price of virtualisation, which SMEs frequently grapple with, Norton explained that if one looks at the value that a virtual machine brings compared to its price, there is a good return on investment.
He also pointed out that VMware has specific products designed for the SME market, for example, the vCloud.
Nonetheless, he noted that VMware does not differentiate the needs of SMEs and those of bigger enterprises. "For us, an SME has exactly the same technology needs as an enterprise.
"We have introduced training programmes when we bring new products into the market to meet the skills shortage challenge. We are making investments in training because we feel that we have to support the partners and the customers."
Norton added that the VMware footprint in Africa is growing steadily. "We have presence in countries like Ghana and Nigeria, where we have a regional office.
"The VMware channel in the region is growing significantly. We have also made some significant investments in the channel. We believe there is also some room to grow the channel further."
According to Norton, VMware's biggest channel partner in Africa has traditionally been Dell.
He also noted that the South African team has grown from 28 to 40 from last year, as the company invests more in Africa.
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