EDITOR’S QUESTION
AS A GLOBAL ENTERPRISE
VENDOR DRIVING
CLOUD AND DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION, IS
AFRICA GETTING LEFT
BEHIND IN THE ADOPTION
OF TRANSFORMATIVE
PLATFORMS?
Matthew Kibby is
Regional Director
at VMware Sub-
Saharan Africa.
In its global surveys, VMware has found
that more than half 57% of South African
business leaders believe management
of technology is shifting away from IT to
other departments, as lines of business
take charge of technology-led innovation
in organisations. The research, among
2,000 IT decision makers and 2,000 heads
of lines of business globally, including
South Africa, Middle East and Turkey, finds
that decentralisation of IT is delivering real
business benefits.
Decentralisation of IT is when any employee
within any business department of an
organisation, other than the IT department,
is making IT purchases or installing or
maintaining software. It can also include
employees using non-IT approved software,
such as Dropbox, without the involvement of
the centralised IT department.
The ownership for driving innovation
within South African organisations is not
disputed among business leaders. The
majority 80% believe that IT should
enable the lines of business to drive
innovation, but must set the strategic
direction and be accountable for security.
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INTELLIGENTCIO
This highlights the balance to be struck
between the central IT function retaining
control while also allowing innovation
to foster in other, separate areas of the
business. In particular, IT leaders feel that
core functions like network security and
compliance 50%, private cloud-based
services 28% and storage 24% should
remain in their control.
Upside findings
• Ability to launch new products and
services to market with greater speed
61%
• Giving business more freedom to drive
innovation 59%
• Increasing responsiveness to market
conditions 59%
• Shift in technology ownership to business
seen to increase employee satisfaction
63%, attract talent 52%
Downside findings
• Shift is causing duplication of spend on IT
services 51%
• Lack of clear ownership and responsibility
for IT 58%
• Purchasing of insecure solutions 68%
• Decentralisation happening against
wishes of IT teams
• Majority of IT teams 58% want IT to
become more centralised
“It is transform or die for many
businesses, with a tumultuous economic
environment and a radically evolved
competitive landscape upturning the
way they operate,” says Matthew Kibby,
Regional Director at VMware Sub-
Saharan Africa. Managing this change
is the great organisational challenge
companies face. The rise of the cloud
has democratised IT, with its ease of
access and attractive costing models,
so it is no surprise that lines of business
have jumped on this opportunity.
Too often, however, we are seeing
this trend left unchecked and without
adequate IT governance, meaning
that organisations across Africa, Middle
East, Europe, are driving up costs,
compromising security and muddying
waters as to who does what, as they look
to evolve. This is not Shadow IT anymore,
that is yesterday’s story, this is now
mainstream IT.
The decentralisation movement is
happening, driven by the need for speed
in today’s business world. The industry
has never seen such a desire for new,
immediately available applications,
services and ways of working. By
recognising these changes are happening,
and adapting to them, IT can still be
an integral part of leading this charge
of change. The latest technology
or application will only drive digital
transformation when it is able to cross any
cloud, is available at speed and with ease,
within a secure environment.
www.intelligentcio.com