Johannesburg, 02 Jun 2021
The old one-cloud-fits-all approach no longer works, and hybrid multiclouds and private clouds are the future for cloud.
This is according to experts addressing the IBM Cloud Forum, which was hosted in partnership with ITWeb this week.
Craig Holmes, Technology Leader at IBM Southern Africa, said the recent IBM ITWeb Hybrid Cloud Survey had found that over 80% of respondents said they were involved in some sort of cloud engagement. “That survey, along with research by the IBM Institute for Business Value, has found that the world is moving to cloud – specifically hybrid cloud. Nobody is choosing single cloud. The hybrid cloud is not hype,” he said.
He noted that key focus areas among local organisations when moving into a hybrid cloud environment were security, which is critical, standardisation and agility. “The next evolution in cloud will be the rise in private clouds, and the launch of more industry-specific clouds,” Holmes said. He noted that IBM was innovating across the hybrid cloud space to address organisations’ concerns and overcome their challenges.
Seth Dobrin, Vice-President and Global Chief AI Officer at IBM, said: “Hybrid cloud is the next shift in this evolution of enterprise, as it provides the fundamentals for business transformation.”
There is a common pattern among companies at all stages of hybrid cloud adoption, he said. “The business needs lying behind the choice of companies to adopt a hybrid cloud are driving innovation, acceleration of future work, acceleration of business process transformation and transforming customer experiences.”
He noted that hybrid cloud enables companies to flexibly and securely manage data and design and execute robust data and AI strategies to provide new revenue streams for their organisations, as well as improving and making their current processes more efficient.
“Hybrid cloud is the key that unlocks innovation for companies by ensuring the implementation of transparent and robust AI solutions,” Dobrin said. “Customers have already experienced huge advancement in their digital transformation by implementing new AI-driven business innovations made possible by the adoption of hybrid cloud.”
Nedbank, for example, moved to a hybrid cloud environment in order to modernise its core banking applications and partnered with IBM for the creation of its cloud native applications, while MultiChoice South Africa answers customers’ inquiries faster than ever with an AI-powered virtual agent – an IBM Watson assistant – to support its call centre agents and help to ensure speedy customer service, he said.
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