FINAL WORD

E-commerce continues to be one of the most fast-paced and competitive global industries , with industry-watchers estimating that online sales will constitute a fifth of all retail sales worldwide by the end of 2022 . As vendors strive to capture their share of market growth , they need to offer exceptional customer experiences that build loyalty and repeat revenue . Adrian Taylor , VP of EMEA at A10 Networks , tells Intelligent CIO Africa how delivering omnichannel excellence puts considerable pressure on infrastructure as site traffic increases and consumer expectations rise .

As vendors strive to capture their share of market growth , they need to offer exceptional customer experiences that build loyalty and repeat revenue . However , delivering omnichannel excellence puts considerable pressure on infrastructure as site traffic increases and consumer expectations rise .

At the same time , the sector is heavily targeted by cybercriminals seeking to disrupt , extort and damage online retail businesses . Consequently , striking a balance between operational efficiency , cost-control , security and customer satisfaction is a complex challenge .

To resolve the tension between availability , performance , efficiency and security , most e-commerce providers are accelerating their cloud transition programmes with many opting for a multi-cloud strategy .

As they do so they are having to make complex technical decisions about application hosting , cloud resources and form factors for the multi-cloud environment . These decisions are driven by the changing landscape in which they are operating and the nature and intensity of the cyber threats they face .

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