Hybrid cloud is still very much in its infancy in South Africa. CEO at Tarsus Cloud On Demand, Jonathan Kropf, says our market is still trying to get to grips with public cloud as well as understand the difference between virtualisation and private cloud. "But, that said, it's something people are starting to ask for," he notes.
Our market is still trying to get to grips with public cloud as well as understand the difference between virtualisation and private cloud.
Jonathan Kropf, CEO, Tarsus Cloud On Demand
He believes our lag ultimately has to do with access to bandwidth (or lack thereof). "The US and Europe have had a longer time to adapt to hybrid cloud, and the market has only recently opened to SA."
VMware's general business and partner lead Mark Reynolds says the business of hybrid cloud is growing in leaps and bounds, yet only 5% of workloads worldwide are reported to be in the cloud. This is a clear indication that the entire industry is still in its infancy - SA even more so.
"Locally, some invested very early and caught the early part of the wave, but many are only investing now, making this a story that still needs to be told," he says.
However, Reynolds says VMware has found, from a revenue perspective, the cloud business has been doubling year-on-year for at least the last three years. "The growth has almost been organic in nature," he says.
Barriers to entry
According to cloud solutions director at WestconGroup Leane Hannigan, uptake is slow for a variety of reasons. "There are still concerns from local resellers that need to be addressed, like migration, security, latency, downtime and functionality. These are all addressable, but the real challenge is about scale, which we as an industry are addressing as quickly as possible."
What WestconGroup has found, she says, is that end-customer demand is driving the need for cloud faster than reseller shift. "Looking closely at the numbers, you can see the speedometer rising more and more each day towards an environment where the demand will start to drive the creation of it as a service," she says.
"Yes, some companies are moving to the cloud, including the hybrid cloud, yet this move needs to be planned and structured," says Reynolds. "Some companies simply don't know how to get there and haven't partnered with the right players to help them."
He cites security as the main barrier to entry for local companies. "However, the idea of change and the uncertainty of continuity can be just as debilitating," he says. There is still some fear associated with the cloud, which will take education to change.
According to Kropf, the concept of linking an on-premises environment to a public cloud seems quite a leap for many, and most still think it has to be done through a VPN connection.
"That said, the actual process is, in fact, very simple and we have the ability in SA to directly terminate a WAN or MPLS to cloud environments, yet the concept seems difficult for many to grasp. That is a major inhibitor," he says.
He believes the idea of cloud and hybrid cloud requires a paradigm shift before a considerable uptake in hybrid cloud can take place locally.
"It's not the first time this sort of shift in thinking and approach to the way things need to be done is happening for our industry. The introduction of the PC, the shift from mainframe to client server and the proliferation of the Internet have all been catalysts for change - the cloud is no different," he points out. "And the trouble is that change is slow."
Education
One way to speed up this change is through education and awareness. Says Hannigan: "We need to get the industry to realise they can still use a hybrid solution and have their trusted advisor address any concerns they may have."
Education can also include the addition of professional services in support of cloud as a business model, the simplification of hybrid solution offerings, and the development of financial models to help support it as a business from an industry as well as end-user point, Hannigan adds.
According to Reynolds, the most effective way to educate companies about the benefits of hybrid is to use real-world examples of successful implementations. "A real differentiator is the opportunity to showcase how others have done it. If you show businesses they aren't going to die if they move to the hybrid cloud, more will be likely to implement the technology. It's important to showcase the real and actual benefits the cloud is providing others if we plan on effectively change minds," he says.
Some companies simply don't know how to get there and haven't partnered with the right players to help them.
Mark Reynolds, general business and partner lead, VMware
Reynolds cites a particular hybrid cloud case study to be especially effective in changing the minds of local companies, as it shows a clever way of overcoming load shedding issues. The example is of NTT in Japan, which moves its workloads between data centres according to load shedding schedules, to ensure the data centre it is using at any given time is not being load-shed.
Reynolds believes the business is moving so quickly no one can really predict it. "It's an exciting business to be in," he says.
"In my opinion, hybrid is here," Hannigan agrees. "What companies now need to do is start ramping it up from year one in their business. They then need to include a key offering for year two and then ultimately look at migrating their business to a full cloud offering from year three." This would make good sense, she says, as "the time for hybrid cloud is now".
A little trust goes a long way
Trusted advisors help clients understand hybrid cloud.
There's no denying what an impact hybrid cloud solutions will have on businesses over the coming years, as it helps local companies find balance between IT infrastructure and public cloud services. Yet many remain confused as to the benefits of a hybrid cloud solution. Enter the trusted advisor.
"Trusted advisors have 'been there, done that'," says Veeam Software regional manager, Warren Olivier. "They've already ironed out the problems and found solutions."
He says trusted advisors can help the business take into account its assets, and how these can best fit into cloud services.
"I cannot stress enough the importance of these initial assessments," he says. "If there are any issues, these are going to end up in the cloud, so an assessment has to be done prior to any business processes going into the cloud."
Security
When shopping around for a trusted advisor, Olivier points out several concerns that businesses need to consider. "Don't assume a trusted advisor offers the right level of security - everything has to be put down in black and white, according to the business needs," Olivier stresses.
The business has to understand to what lengths a trusted advisor will go to protect its data. "Also make sure you know who is accountable for data breaches and where the advisor stands with regards to continuity. If they are going to use power outages as an excuse for downtime, then you better look elsewhere," Olivier says. Planned downtime is no longer acceptable.
It's important to keep in mind that value-add is what differentiates today's solution providers, and it's the very thing that gives them competitive advantage.
It comes down to your service-level agreement (SLA), Olivier says. Responsibility, penalty, requirements, and all other details of the partnership should be well-documented in the SLA.
"Don't be afraid of asking your potential trusted advisor for all and every value-added service your company requires. Remember, this should be seen as a long-term relationship built on trust. It's not a decision that can, or should, be made lightly. And that said, once you have your ideal trusted advisor in your sights, you can find peace in knowing your best interests will be considered on an ongoing basis."
2015: year of hybrid cloud for SA
Local hybrid cloud is set to boom this year, putting SA in line with developed nations.
New Avanade hybrid cloud research (Hybrid Cloud: From Hype to Reality) shows the tipping point for hybrid cloud adoption is fast approaching. In this global study, 58% of respondents indicated their companies currently do not have a hybrid cloud strategy in place. The SA sample was considerably larger, at 75%, showing a less mature market.
However, when compared to the global numbers, SA is poised to catch up to the rest of the world this year. Globally, 69% indicated hybrid cloud to be one of the biggest areas of focus for their company in 2015, while a staggering 90% of local companies cited the same.
"These results show a coming of age for South Africa with regards to the hybrid cloud market," says VP - head of Sales and Operations for Avanade, John Tadman. He says the local mining and banking sectors are driving this trend.
However, security and privacy concerns - whether real or perceived - remain the biggest barriers to adoption and implementation of cloud solutions today, and the skills required to address this are not in place, Tadman says.
According to the research, security and privacy were most often cited as barriers to implementation of hybrid cloud solutions (53% globally), compared to cost (35%), a difference of nearly 20 percentage points. In SA, 40% of respondents saw governance/lack of IT control and integration with other back-office systems as important barriers to entry.
"Companies view hybrid cloud as a competitive advantage that better positions their organisations to focus on issues that are core to the growth of the business," Tadman highlights. "Customisation and flexibility were cited as the top benefits."
According to the study, 73% agree that adopting a hybrid cloud solution will give their organisation an edge over competitors, and 74% agree that hybrid cloud will enable their companies to focus on issues that are core to the growth of the business. More than one-third of respondents (39%) indicated that customisation and flexibility was an advantage of hybrid cloud over public-only cloud. Sixty percent of local respondents believe a top advantage to be hybrid's ability to incorporate services into infrastructure controlled by IT staff (60%).
While business and IT leadership have differing views on organisational readiness, hybrid cloud will give IT the tools, capabilities and control they need to stay relevant to the business, Tadman concludes.
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