EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
OSAMA AL-ZOUBI , CTO , CISCO MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
Businesses across the Middle East and Africa
( MEA ) are increasingly recognising the potential of cloud to streamline processes and are investing in cloud solutions to help properly structure and store their data . This is something we are witnessing across both the public and private sector , as businesses of all sizes focus on cloud deployment within their personal digitisation agendas . The ultimate catalyst for accelerated cloud adoption has been the COVID-19 pandemic , which caused decisionmakers to implement more robust digital solutions in today ’ s world of remote and agile working .
There are a few major drivers of cloud adoption in the region : scalability , agility and security . He added that cloud-based solutions are working to enhance overall productivity and visibility for organisations across industries . IT teams can automate management and provisioning of cloud-based services to simplify operations , save time and help reduce costs . High scalability eliminates the time needed for purchasing and deploying additional infrastructure . Enterprises that need to innovate and pivot quickly often turn to cloud services . At the same time , some companies have data centre assets and applications which cannot be easily migrated . Other data may be subject to regulatory requirements that prevent that data from residing in public clouds .
Companies often pursue a hybrid cloud architecture , where some data and applications reside in companies ’ own data centres and some data and apps reside in public clouds . Sectors such as oil and gas are seeing increasing prevalence of cloud solutions , to remotely observe and maintain fields and production units . Data in the cloud can be leveraged to identify potential areas requiring maintenance ahead of time , to limit outages and keep production at a steady pace . In healthcare , cloud adoption is helping to future-proof hospital infrastructures , where the rapid uptake of bandwidth-rich clinical applications , such as telehealth , digital imaging and remote monitoring require agile digital systems to enable secure sharing and storage of data , as well as greater operational efficiencies . In education , cloud services are empowering educators to create connected classrooms , quickly deploy virtual learning applications that enhance engagement and enable teachers to individualise learning , based on performance data and each student ’ s personal learning style .
Prior to enacting cloud migration , CIOs must first determine their level of cloud integration – whether this involves ‘ shallow ’ or ‘ deep ’ cloud integration and a single cloud provider or multi-cloud environment , depending on the needs of the business . It is always essential to set KPIs and metrics which can measure how well the newly implemented solutions are performing against expectations . Often the easiest way to measure the success of cloud solutions is in the ongoing experience of discovering far greater visibility over processes and areas for improvement . Crucially , CIOs must also ensure that they make the right decision when it comes to the speed of cloud migration . For some , it makes sense to migrate entire applications at once – for others , it may be more sustainable to migrate to the cloud component by component . This is especially important if you have one service or component inherently reliant on the operational ability of another .
In a region where small and medium businesses form the backbone of many of our economies , financial constraints are also a key motivator of cloud adoption . On-premise IT infrastructure can be costly and often takes up room that smaller organisations simply do not have . With cloud solutions , businesses can benefit from scalability , with monthly subscriptions and options to expand and reduce expenditure depending on actual business needs at that moment in time .
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