There can be little doubt that implementing a cost-effective and efficient cloud strategy brings many challenges.

In partnership with Amazon Web Services, Altron recently conducted a cloud survey to investigate the needs of South African organisations when it came to cloud adoption. It also looked at the challenges businesses face when it came to cloud deployment models.

The study’s main objective was to examine whether South African businesses had a cloud strategy in place and what was driving the current massive increase in cloud adoption.

The survey also wanted to find out whether businesses had a cloud adoption strategy in place, the rate of cloud adoption and whether IT or business was driving it.

A new way of doing business

As we move into 2022, failing to have a cloud adoption strategy in place can have a strongly negative impact on business efficiency. Yet, according to the survey, 33% of respondents indicated that their organisation did not yet have a cloud adoption strategy.

In addition, the survey revealed that 56% of respondents who did not have a cloud adoption strategy in place planned to develop one in the near future, while 38% remained unsure.

Respondents were asked to rate the progress on their cloud adoption journey. Twenty-four percent felt that their organisation was slightly behind, while 34% of said they were on track and 16% said their business was ahead.

The top three considerations organisations cited when it came to adopting or planning to adopt a cloud strategy were: improving IT efficiencies (91%), cost reduction (86%) and digital transformation (86%). Security concerns emerged as the main reason respondents cited for avoid the cloud.

Hybrid cloud preferred

It emerged from the survey that hybrid cloud is the most popular route for South African organisations, with 45% of respondents indicating this as their preferred deployment model. Thirty-seven percent chose private cloud only, while 11% chose public cloud only.

The 2021 Altron/AWS cloud survey ran for 14 days during November and December. Seventy-one percent of respondents were decision makers, with 29% being C-level executives and 29% at mid-management level. Sixteen percent were consultants.

Nine percent of respondents worked at organisations that employed between 1 000 and 5 000 people, while 16% worked at companies that employed 5000 or more people.