Johannesburg, 14 Oct 2015
The cloud, particularly the arrival of Microsoft Azure, unlocks a world of opportunity and levels the playing field for small and medium-sized enterprises in South Africa, says EOH MC Solutions.
Chris Lazari, service delivery executive at EOH MC, says South Africa's SMEs stand to compete on an even footing with major enterprises in future, thanks to the breadth of cloud-based enterprise-grade solutions now within their reach.
"We are seeing South African start-ups and major enterprises embracing the cloud, but the smaller and mid-sized businesses who could benefit most are still shying away from using the cloud to gain a competitive advantage," he says.
Lazari notes SMEs are, however, moving to cloud-based utilities and commodities. "They are using cloud-based e-mail and file-sharing, for example. But they have not yet moved to tools that deliver bigger business value, like analytics."
He believes there is a lack of awareness in this market of the full potential of the cloud to deliver business-changing solutions at a lower barrier to entry.
"SMEs may not be aware that now, world-class enterprise solutions are literally a credit card away. The cloud levels the playing field for them, so that now, the differentiator comes down to innovation," he says. Lazari believes Microsoft's Azure platform unlocks tools and functionality that local SMEs have never before had access to, and have never considered using.
"Analytics is an important tool for competitive advantage. Until recently, a mid-sized enterprise wanting to understand customers, or answer questions like 'what time of day are most sales made?' struggled to do so. Now, cloud-based solutions allow them to easily extract value from the information in their systems," he says.
Disaster recovery is another area where the cloud can benefit SMEs. "Small companies reliant on their IT traditionally have to replicate their entire environment at significant cost. The cloud makes the process a lot simpler and more cost-effective," says Lazari.
Risk management and security have also traditionally presented challenges for SMEs, he says. "Major enterprises have the advantage of multiple layers of security and large information security teams, while smaller businesses have not had the ability to protect their information and Web sites to the same degree.
"The advent of cloud-based security as a service allows them to enjoy the same level of protection and continuity as major enterprise. And for those seeking to lock down business-critical information, identity and access management, using cloud services for two-factor authentication is also an option."
Lazari notes the cloud enables faster roll-outs, rapid geographic expansion and cost-effective innovation for small and medium businesses. "EOH MC is a firm believer in the cloud, and we see a great deal of value in it for SMEs. In the past, they have not had the kind of IT budgets that allow them to consider enterprise tools that support business drivers like big data analytics. But the cloud now empowers them to understand the market, look at trends and make predictions that drive competitiveness. They are sitting on data they can use to grow sales, reduce cost and move into new markets - and once they realise this, and use the cloud to unlock the value of their data, SMEs will become a force to be reckoned with."
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