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Using the cloud to foster a next-generation hybrid workforce

As the pandemic drives the growing demand for a hybrid workforce, Altron and Huawei’s cloud partnership delivers the ideal foundation for such an approach.

Johannesburg, 03 Aug 2021
Vaughn Naidoo, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Altron Systems Integration.
Vaughn Naidoo, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Altron Systems Integration.

Despite the negative impact of COVID-19, the one area that continues to see significant growth regardless of the pandemic has been the ICT arena. For example, in South Africa, public cloud services is anticipated to grow 35.4% this year.

It is clear, suggests Vaughn Naidoo, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Altron Systems Integration, that most organisations are accelerating their cloud adoption in the wake of the virus, which supports the predicted annual growth rate of 19.1%.

“The economic, organisational and societal impact of the pandemic will continue to serve as a catalyst for digital innovation and the adoption of cloud services moving forward. This will be especially true for use cases such as collaboration, remote work and new digital services to support a hybrid workforce,” he says.

“I suspect most enterprises will be forced to bring forward digital business transformation plans by at least three years. This will be necessary in order to properly adapt to a post-COVID-19 world, one which involves permanently higher adoption of remote work and digital touch points.”

Naidoo adds that a hybrid workforce will likely be the future of work, with both remote and on-site options as part of the same solution to optimise employers' workforce needs. Cloud adoption underpins organisations' ambitions to create a hybrid workplace that balances employees' needs with business success, while providing a flexible but consistent workplace in any location.

“Altron’s goal has been to develop cloud-native solutions supported in multi, hybrid, private and hyper-scale cloud environments. To this end, we are leveraging off our experience in the data and analytics, application development, security, infrastructure and operations practices, to build hybrid and multicloud solutions.”

He adds that the enterprise has gained numerous advantages by partnering with Huawei Cloud. The first of these is the opportunity to grow into Africa, given Huawei’s extensive footprint and partners throughout the continent.

“In addition, they have a strong presence and brand in the SA public sector space, a commercial model that includes additional rewards for migrating Altron Systems Integration’s traditional-based customers to the cloud, and they offer the public cloud as an infrastructure-only offering. This complements Altron Systems Integration’s own solutions, creating a full stack solution.

“More crucially, our partnership with Huawei supports the objectives, goals and growth areas of our Altron 2.0 strategy. Given our core capabilities and the quality of their cloud offering, it is a hand-in-glove relationship,” continues Naidoo.

Stone He, President, Huawei Cloud Southern Africa.
Stone He, President, Huawei Cloud Southern Africa.

He notes that cloud migration not only appears to be taking many organisations longer than they had hoped for, but seems to regularly add up to more than initially accounted for. Many organisations currently feel as if the cloud has over-promised and under-delivered.

“Once again, we are pleased to be partnering with Huawei in this respect, since the organisation has local service teams, R&D centres and regional support centres that provide 24/7 technical support, should any issues arise. Furthermore, with its data centre located in Johannesburg, this allows for data to be processed locally, mitigating any latency or sovereignty concerns.

“Between Huawei’s local data centre – a stable platform that complies with tier 3+ standards – and our own unique skills and solutions in areas like data and analytics, security, operations and more, our end-customers can rest assured that they are, and will continue, receiving a superior service,” he concludes.

Stone He, President, Huawei Cloud (Southern Africa), adds: “Huawei Cloud is focused on creating a sustainable ecosystem, focusing on strategic collaborations with leaders in the ICT space. We are proud to be building this digital economy, enabling organisations as they journey to the cloud.

“Our local data centres offer a reliable and safe platform with reduced latency. All our data centres also comply with tier 3+ standards, which ensure superior service and security, while Altron’s experience in data and analytics, application development, security, infrastructure and operations practices will guide your business through the process in an optimal and cost-effective manner,” concludes He.

Follow Huawei Cloud South Africa on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube or e-mail us at huaweicloudsa@huawei.com

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