Craig Holmes, Southern Africa Technology Leader at IBM

ITWeb and IBM are conducting a survey to discover where South African businesses are on their hybrid cloud adoption journey. The survey also looks into the role that cloud plays in local business strategy.

Craig Holmes, Southern Africa Technology Leader at IBM, says: "Over the past few years, businesses have embarked on digital transformation journeys. The early adopters have made great strides as they transitioned to the cloud – building news apps and delivering innovative digital services. We saw a small percentage use automation and application modernisation accompanied by usage of public cloud for largely non mission-critical workloads. March 2020 and COVID-19 changed all that. Global supply chain disruptions, financial stress, combined with changes in how companies engage with their clients, resulted in an unprecedented acceleration of digital transformation. Now, many have to transition to the cloud and move their mission-critical apps and core IT infrastructure to meet the demands of a changing world. This digital reinvention with the secure and AI-powered next-generation hybrid cloud platform is helping them unlock the true value of the new reality of digital business for decades to come.

The majority of South African businesses have only just started their cloud journeys. They face the challenges of shifting core business applications and workloads to the cloud, extracting more value from data and optimising every part of the business, from supply chains to sales. With this survey, IBM seeks to understand where local businesses are in their migration to cloud; what approach they are taking; the issues they face; the business decisions that are impacting their migration; and the cloud providers they are using.”

The survey seeks to explore the triggers or events that led to businesses’ adoption of cloud services, how they plan to approach cloud in the next 12-18 months as well as which business priorities will be impacted by cloud adoption. It also looks into the various types of data that businesses have, and where these are being stored now – and where they’ll be stored in the future. Businesses’ attitudes towards hybrid cloud adoption are also interrogated. Finally, anticipated challenges around hybrid multi-cloud adoption are unpacked.

By participating in the survey, you’ll be entered into a lucky prize draw (if you choose) for a Takealot voucher to the value of R2 500. The detailed results of the survey, and the prize winner, will be published on ITWeb.

To add your input, go to:
https://www.itweb.co.za/surveys/8RgeVDqP8XqKJN35/about