South African financial services embrace hybrid cloud

In recent years, cloud computing has moved up the agenda for IT leaders and C-level executives in South Africa because it serves as a major catalyst for digital transformation. Along the way, hybrid cloud technology has become the preferred computing infrastructure for many companies — particularly those in the financial-services sector.

Businesses across the continent are quickly starting to realise the strategic business benefits offered by cloud computing and, as a result, are moving more and more of their business applications into the cloud, according to a cross-section of business leaders and analysts.

Many industries are embracing cloud, but some are more invested than others, notes Dobek Pater, director and analyst at Africa Analysis. Typically, sectors that have to comply with strict governance and compliance regulations in order to ensure that confidential information isn’t compromised are more cautious about public cloud. These include the heavily regulated financial services sector.

Banks and other financial institutions are very cautious and risk-averse, according to Pater. They rarely like to be on the bleeding edge of new technology and tend to introduce new technologies very gradually.

The evolution of cloud use among local financial institutions started out with private cloud services, often customised to suit their specific needs and to drive efficiencies across a particular department, Pater says.

Private clouds spurred initial cloud usage

“This is where the first growth in cloud took place. Services delivered by the private cloud (or clouds) became increasingly impactful and more organisations (both large and small) began to make use of them,” Pater says. And then public cloud took the spotlight, offering cost savings and lower friction because it is run by professional cloud service providers who manage, maintain and secure cloud environments for many different customers, so that users can focus their attention on other things.