The local cloud market is on the up. According to Africa Analysis’ 2024 SA Cloud Market Growth Report, the landscape is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 26% between 2023 and 2028 as more and more businesses look to cloud to improve performance and drive better outcomes.
The benefits of making the move to cloud are now fairly obvious – from greater flexibility and reliability to increased performance and efficiency – but there are some glaring challenges and issues that can come with any cloud deployment. It’s not as simple as taking the decision to migrate and then making the move, explains Isaac Makoto, business development manager at Data Sciences Corporation. Businesses must be mindful of things like data sovereignty regulations and legacy system integrations when finding the right cloud strategy for their unique needs. “Cost is also a major factor,” he adds. “It’s a bit of a double-edged sword, to be honest, because every business wants the benefit of cloud but the more you consume and the longer you consume, the more expensive it becomes.”
This is why so many businesses are going hybrid, he continues. With a hybrid model, businesses can leverage cloud where it is most appropriate and everything else remains on-premises. “If you want to put together an environment, develop something and see if it works, the cloud makes a hell of a lot of sense, because you can go to a cloud service provider, request the resources that you need and then once you're done, you get out,” he explains. “In the past, you would have had to go and buy infrastructure and when you’re done with it, it sits idle until you need it again.”
There has been quite a steep learning curve when it comes to cloud, Makoto continues, noting that some businesses are now moving their data back on-premises as a result. The reasons for this are varied – financial, performance and regulatory – but it mostly comes down to poor initial road mapping and a lack of a clear cloud plan. According to Makoto, this is why hybrid cloud deployment makes business sense, particularly for larger, enterprise customers who are still using legacy architecture and applications that may not necessarily be best fit for the cloud.
Data Sciences Corporation is a Pure Storage partner, and Makoto recently had the opportunity to attend their Pure//Accelerate event in Las Vegas. At the event, the technology company showcased their Evergreen/One storage as a service (STaaS) platform. The ideal solution for a hybrid cloud environment, Evergreen/One unifies on-premises and public cloud storage resources in a single subscription. “This gives customers the ability to leverage a ‘cloud-like’ consumption model with storage and infrastructure that still resides on-prem,” he concludes. “So, you can source the infrastructure, put it on your floor and then pay for what you use. If you need more, you can grow the environment and then pay more. And if you don't need something anymore, you can easily scale and allocate that budget elsewhere. It’s a win-win.”
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