CIO OPINION
Migrating core business processes from onpremises environments to the cloud requires a proven methodology to reduce associated risks .
Cameron Beveridge , Regional Director Southern Africa at SAP
Why African businesses need to follow welltrodden path while moving to the cloud
Understanding how and where the journey to the cloud should start remains the biggest obstacles for African organisations writes Cameron Beveridge at SAP .
Companies are in a race to achieve new digital capabilities as ongoing economic disruption and a changing business landscape drive the need for rapid innovation . African organisations are accelerating their adoption of cloud solutions to drive greater efficiency , scale into new markets , and meet changing customer demands .
Gartner predicts that worldwide spending on public cloud services will grow 20.7 % to reach $ 591.8 billion in 2023 , outpacing the 18.8 % growth forecast for 2022 .
However , moving to cloud environments requires effective change management to ensure digital transformation initiatives reach their objectives . There is palpable excitement around cloud services in African markets , but there are still questions around how to effectively migrate and how to orchestrate multiple cloud solutions once the migration is complete .
And while it is true that one of the main benefits of cloud services is the ability to fail quickly without incurring huge cost or time overruns , you really do not want your cloud initiative to fail due to poor change management .
Studies have highlighted the importance of effective change management to the success of digital transformation initiatives . McKinsey data indicates that less than a third of digital transformation initiatives succeed worldwide . This is partly due to poor change management , of which barely a third , 34 % are clear successes .
38 INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA www . intelligentcio . com