[Africa Cloud Review] Simon Ngunjiri: Migrating to the cloud is the most effective route to digital transformation
For African businesses that are still at the start of their digital transformation, migrating to the cloud might seem like a very daunting task. This is according to an article by Francis Wainaina is a Senior Product Manager at SEACOM East Africa where he talks about the four steps to successful cloud migration.
The costs of delaying this migration, however, Francis says, can be far greater than the initial challenges of cloud adoption.
In a survey by World Wide Worx, 31% of Kenyan businesses reported spending between 51% and 75% of their IT budgets on cloud services in 2020, and 68% intend to increase their cloud spend in 2021. With so many businesses moving to the cloud, you can’t afford to be left behind.
The pandemic has doubtlessly accelerated this shift toward cloud environments as we have mentioned before. More organizations are beginning to capitalize on the various innovations that cloud can offer.
According to industry analysts Gartner, Cloud spending rose 37% to $29 billion during the first quarter of 2020. This trend Gartner says is likely to persist, as the exodus to virtual work underscores the urgency for scalable, secure, reliable, cost-effective off-premises technology services. In fact, despite the inevitable economic downturn in the wake of the pandemic, cloud spending is estimated to rise 19% for the full year, even as IT spending as a whole is forecast to fall 8%.
In countries like South Africa, 51% of the public sector segment are already using cloud in production. This is according to a recent survey conducted by ITWeb and AWS on the state of cloud adoption in South Africa.
Migrating to the cloud is the most effective route to public sector transformation for African businesses. Just recently, Google announced a new programme to offer new scholarships for Android, Web and Google Cloud development to developers across Africa. The programme will be offered in partnership with tech talent companies Pluralsight and Andela.
Cloud services have certainly revolutionized the way we do business, offering various benefits such as cost-effective access to computing power, on-demand applications, and services among others. African businesses are moving faster and cheaper especially with platforms like Google Cloud. With 24 regions and 73 zones in 17 countries, Google Cloud delivers high-performance, low-latency cloud services to customers.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) also recently announced that it is bringing its re/Start cloud skills training program to Kenya and South Africa this month as part of its rapid expansion plans this year.
AWS re/Start is a free, full-time, 12-week program designed to support people who are unemployed or underemployed, and who have little technology experience, for careers in cloud computing. The program provides participants with new cloud computing skills, career, and resume coaching, and interviews with local employers.
Bottom line, migrating to the cloud is the most effective route to digital transformation and IS ultimately essential for African businesses that wish to thrive in today’s digital age.
Simon Ngunjiri Muraya is Google Cloud Architect at Incentro Africa.
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