Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 34 | Page 25

+ EDITOR’S QUESTION GRANT BENNETT, COUNTRY MANAGER FOR SUSE SOUTH AFRICA AND SUB- SAHARAN AFRICA /////////////////// T he infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) market is predicted to reach US$72.4 billion worldwide by 2020 – an indication that the digital migration of service has been accepted around the world as businesses move to meet the digital demands of the digital economy. Moving the business to a good IaaS provider is much like moving to an upmarket office park. From fine architecture, good housekeeping, security, convenience and a modern pace, the business is positioned in the right place for success. Likewise, IaaS offers virtual compute, storage and network capabilities without the burden of owning and maintaining infrastructure. So, where does the challenge lie? Finding the right agent, or in this case, the right IaaS partner. While there are so many options in the vendor scenario, finding the perfect fit requires a business to look at the following: • Infrastructure: Whether the business is looking to IaaS for the purpose of reducing infrastructure ownership costs, or for temporary and experimental workloads, a good IaaS provider should have a robust managed cloud solution that is run on a secure platform • Cost: Though the obvious benefit of opting for an IaaS model is lower infrastructure cost, it is also important to understand the pricing model and how to control usage. Additionally, opting for the most cost-effective option may not be cost effective in the long-term, so look for costing options the work for the business • A good fit: Where possible, a provider’s technology should fit the business’s existing operations with little or no disruption while facilitating the business’s need to leverage on compute recourses on demand. This rollout should www.intelligentcio.com also plan for how to retire or repurpose existing infrastructure so that all assets can be sweat properly and not just ripped and replaced • Open: As technologies continue to evolve at pace, businesses need to look to partners that keep business open to innovation, open to change and in essence, open to new technologies by not being locked in with a specific vendor. OpenStack Cloud, for example, provides an easy to deploy and manage heterogeneous cloud infrastructure for provisioning development, test and production workloads in a way that is supportable, compliant and secure Businesses have realised that IaaS efficiency benefits are too good to pass up on as it fundamentally revolutionises the way they purchase, manage and deploy IT infrastructure. In fact, according the Cloud Africa 2018 report, there has been an increase in cloud spending among South African businesses where 74% of them are realising the need and the importance of IaaS to perform in an agile market but choosing the right provider that is able to align the business’s present and future needs with vendor offerings will be critical to reaping the benefits IaaS has to offer. INTELLIGENTCIO 25