EDITOR’S QUESTION
KEITH FENNER, VICE
PRESIDENT, SAGE
ENTERPRISE AFRICA
& MIDDLE EAST
M
id-sized organisations in
Africa are facing growing
global competition, new
regulations and the imperative of digital
transformation. To keep pace with the
demands of a fast-changing world,
they need to modernise their systems
and automate their business processes
– yet they cannot afford to put their
operations on hold as they implement
complex enterprise resource planning
(ERP) suites.
As a result, we are seeing more and more
medium-sized companies look beyond
on-premises software implementations
or large, complex private cloud
deployments towards the benefits of
leaner, more agile public and hybrid
cloud solutions. With a new generation
of business management software, they
can choose from new alternatives that
are powerful, adaptable and quick to pay
for themselves.
One of the reasons we are seeing some
companies steer away from private cloud
deployments is the cost. There’s the
investment in hardware infrastructure
and software licences, plus ongoing
support and implementation costs.
With public cloud solutions, organisations
can benefit from a simple per user, per
month cost. These solutions also turn
what used to be a capital cost into an
operating cost, allowing organisations
to access world-class technology without
large capex expenditures.
They offer traditional ERP benefits
such as integration of processes and
systems across the enterprise and a
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INTELLIGENTCIO
single view of corporate data; public
cloud solutions are architected for an
era of social, mobile, cloud, and big
data technologies. That means they
are well suited to the demands of
modern work, for example, allowing
mobile workers to collaborate across
the cloud or supporting Internet of
Things deployments. This is a rapid
and powerful way for companies to
integrate their businesses with the
digital economy and get ready for the
digital revolution.
“As a result, we
are seeing more
and more medium-
sized companies
look beyond on-
premises software
implementations
or large, complex
private cloud
deployments
towards the
benefits of leaner,
more agile public
and hybrid cloud
solutions.”
Nonetheless, it is important to note that
the public cloud is not necessarily the
optimal model for every business.
The public cloud is secure, but a private
cloud offers even more robust security.
As such, it’s a good fit for companies
in heavily regulated industries – for
example, banking, insurance, and
the public sector. It is also ideal
for companies that want a level of
customisability they can’t get from the
public cloud.
Other organisations may prefer a
hybrid cloud approach that mixes
and matches private and public
cloud services according to need. For
example, many businesses use public
cloud services for applications such
as CRM, testing, and website hosting,
while relying on private cloud services
for business-critical applications that
manage sensitive data.
As with a private cloud, the company
will need good in-house IT skills to
manage a hybrid cloud. A hybrid model
may be somewhat more complex and
expensive to run than a pure public
cloud approach, but the business case
is often strong in larger businesses. As
IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT
Infrastructure Tracker for April 2017
shows, the cloud in its various flavours
is growing its share of overall worldwide
IT spending.
Whether organisations go for private or
public, or a hybrid of both, the cloud can
provide the dedicated solutions African
companies need to take their businesses
to the next level. n
www.intelligentcio.com