- World Wide Worx this week revealed the findings of its Cloud in Africa 2023, published in partnership with Dell Technologies, Intel, VMware, and others.
- The study interviewed 400 IT decision makers in medium and large organisations across Africa.
- It found that 69 percent of respondents will increase their cloud spend this year.
Local research firm World Wide Worx has this week revealed the findings of its latest study looking at Cloud in Africa for 2023. The study leveraged the insight of 400 IT decision makers across the African continent, as many indicated that spending on cloud this year would be a priority.
To that end, 69 percent of respondents noted that they plan to increase spending, with only 7 percent expecting a decrease. Those figures are up from last year’s numbers, with 61 percent indicating an increase and 3 percent a decrease.
These findings were a little surprising in the view of the research firm, which was anticipated a decrease on the back of a frantic couple of years as a result of the pandemic. Instead, it looks like cloud spending is an intrinsic part of doing business on the continent.
“We thought that cloud spending might be toned down in the wake of the massive adoption that took place in 2020 and 2021. Instead, the opposite was the case,” explained World Wide Worx CEO Arthur Goldstuck, who served as principal analyst on the research project
“Any company dealing with a large customer base, or an ecosystem of suppliers and clients, must embrace the cloud if they expect to operate both efficiently and cost-effectively. The key to benefiting from a cloud deployment is to choose a partner with solutions that can simplify deployment and management of hybrid cloud infrastructure – and that’s where Dell Technologies can help,” highlighted Doug Woolley, MD of Dell Technologies for South Africa, in a press release sent to Hypertext.
Interestingly, one of the other key findings in the report relates to some of the benefits as a result of adoption more cloud solutions. Here 56 percent of respondents noted improved security as a benefit, with World Wide Work saying a negligible amount cited it as a concern.
“I believe we are overdue for a shift in understanding that cloud deployments can be secure if properly implemented. According to the statistics in this research, the cloud provides peace of mind as well. In addition, as the study demonstrates, both customer and business service efficiency are substantially enhanced when the cloud is utilised,” added Ian Jansen van Rensburg, director of Solutions Engineering and Lead technologist at VMware Sub-Saharan.
Some of the other benefits included improved customer service at 44 percent, business efficiency at 41 percent, and scalability at 40 percent. This also matches up with why local technology service providers are beefing up their own cloud capabilities.
“It is no coincidence that Intel recently announced a range of new scalable processors designed for data centres. It is precisely that benefit – scalability – that gives the cloud the power to enhance efficiency and customer service,” explained Intel South Africa country manager Nitesh Doolabh.
Perhaps the most important finding, however, when it comes to the value of cloud spending on the African continent, is the impact it has had on businesses being able to stay afloat, as well as stay resilient amid a turbulent few years.
“The most important finding for enterprises was that 90% of respondents reported business growth, with 43% seeing strong growth. Fewer than 10% said that business had stayed the same or declined. This makes it clear that cloud technology is not tech for its own sake, but has a clear value proposition for business,” highlighted Goldstuck.
A helpful infographic with the additional statistics from the Cloud in Africa 2023 study can be found below.
[Image – Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash]
