{"id":30415,"date":"2019-11-27T10:03:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T10:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=30415"},"modified":"2019-11-29T10:44:56","modified_gmt":"2019-11-29T10:44:56","slug":"decision-inc-expert-on-making-the-move-to-the-cloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2019\/11\/27\/decision-inc-expert-on-making-the-move-to-the-cloud\/","title":{"rendered":"Decision Inc expert on making the move to the cloud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It has been several months since the launch of the two Microsoft Azure data centres in South Africa. And as expected, this has resulted in many organisations looking for ways to move their on-premise data environments to the cloud. Reghard van Jaarsveld, Engagement Manager, Decision Inc, looks at what has changed to see this influx of interest<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has become common to find hybrid (combining on-premise with cloud) solutions within a broader market segment than before. In fact, decision-makers today are typically having conversations with service providers around what elements of their systems they need to migrate to the cloud and what should remain on-premise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Embracing change<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To this end, there are four main factors driving\ninterest in moving to the cloud when it comes to data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, latency. Companies feel that local data\ncentres will reduce the latency challenges when working with large datasets.\nThis is especially important when dealing with analytics where response times\nare critical. And with the shift towards Artificial Intelligence taking place,\nhaving data centres in the country mean high-performance computing can be\naccessed faster than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secondly, the cloud results in reduced maintenance\n(and the associated costs). For companies with small IT teams and limited\ncapacity, this becomes a significant competitive advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, integration into the Microsoft ecosystem\nhas become an easier journey than it was previously. Local businesses can now\naccess a varied application set with more local cloud-based offerings expected\nto become available towards the end of this year and the beginning of 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally, having the option to adopt a pay-per-use\nmodel is a massive advantage. With the cloud offering consumption-based\npricing, companies not only save in the short-term, but budgets can be more\neasily planned for in the long-term as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Treading carefully<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, this does not mean companies do not have\nreservations when it comes to migrating to the cloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A big concern decision-makers have when it comes to\ncloud migrations is that of compliance. The legal responsibility for protecting\nsensitive information in a highly regulated environment is of utmost\nimportance. Failing to comply can result in significant financial and\nreputational damage. However, given that the data centres fall within the\nborders of the country, questions around data sovereignty have largely been\naddressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another hurdle to overcome is investments made in\nexisting systems. This is especially relevant if hardware and software have\nbeen upgraded recently. Some businesses have also experienced delays in\ninfrastructure and getting high-speed fibre access into their buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New business<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite these challenges, service providers are seeing\nan increase in deals with companies looking to make the cloud transition. While\nmany companies do not have the appetite, budget, and infrastructure in place to\nstart data-related projects, Microsoft Azure has enabled service providers to\ndeliver more frequent data projects at a lower cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This drives benefits to both consultancies and clients\nas agreements are now put in place more frequently without exposing either\nparty to a significant amount of risk. This also enables clients to assess\ntheir interest in migrating more systems to the cloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within the data space, many companies are looking to centralise\ntheir data in the cloud. This drives usage and consumption of products that\nrange from Azure Data Integration Tools to Azure Storage Mediums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With most local companies still getting comfortable\nwith basic cloud offerings, not many are exploring going hyperscale yet.\nHowever, as the local market starts maturing, this is certainly going to be an\nexpectation for the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been several months since the launch of the two Microsoft Azure data centres in South Africa. And as expected, this has resulted in many organisations looking for ways to move their on-premise data environments to the cloud. Reghard van Jaarsveld, Engagement Manager, Decision Inc, looks at what has changed to see this influx […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":30416,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4950,182,46,275,399,19,9059,10675,262],"tags":[386,11833,11834,1059,532,176,11832,7094,5874,453],"class_list":["post-30415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-cloud","category-data-centres","category-intelligent-technology-newsletter","category-more-news","category-regional-news","category-south-africa","category-thought-leadership","category-used","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-azure-data-integration-tools","tag-azure-storage-mediums","tag-decision-inc","tag-hybrid-cloud","tag-microsoft","tag-microsoft-azure-data-centre","tag-on-premise","tag-reghard-van-jaarsveld","tag-south-africa"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30415"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30418,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30415\/revisions\/30418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}