Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 73 | Page 29

EDITOR ’ S QUESTION

The MEA territory comprises many emerging markets that see in the cloud a potential business accelerator as it allows start-ups and growing business to focus more on their core business functions and less on the underlining IT platforms . Without doubt , the cloud frees businesses from the start-up CAPEX financial liabilities of traditional IT infrastructures and leapfrog into virtualised platforms against manageable monthly installments .

CIOs should refrain from approaching the cloud on an adhoc basis and incorporate various cloud components tactically and without a clearly defined strategy .
A sound cloud strategy needs to precede any migration effort as this will guarantee clear objectives and success metrics that will later help in steering the migration effort . Often cloud migrations are conflated with Digital Transformation initiatives which can lead to conflicting objectives and priorities .
It is true that migrating to the cloud would result in cost cutting ; however , it is important to note that in the short-term , the organisation will incur extra costs related to migration efforts and the co-existence of the legacy and the cloud platforms . CIOs need to be mindful that certain legacy applications cannot be migrated , and this would result in retaining legacy infrastructure until such applications are retired and substituted with viable alternatives .
CIOs should refrain from approaching the cloud on an ad-hoc basis and incorporate various cloud components tactically and without a clearly defined strategy . This approach may result in a surge in the effort to maintain a cohesive IT architecture , data fragmentation , integration challenges and more Existing IT personnel can be trained and equipped with cloud skills ; however , onboarding new cloud specialists could help bring a new and a fresh perspective , albeit challenging in the current cloud manpower market shortage .
security gaps from arising as a result of the migration . Selecting the right vendor is another decision that needs to be taken with meticulous consideration . Cloud outsourcing contracts tend to be more economical when they span longer periods but that could also lead to vendor lock-up .
CIOs should also be mindful of network connectivity issues in all of their territories of operation and scale up the network capacity following performance modeling and testing . p
Similarly , there needs to be an updated cybersecurity plan that addresses the new architecture and prevents
ADIL KILZIE , HEAD OF CX , ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS AND CLOUD , KPMG SAUDI ARABIA
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