KEEP YOUR HEAD IN THE CLOUD

There are many compelling reasons to switch to cloud services when it comes to backing up your small, medium, or micro-enterprise (SMME) in South Africa

Cloud services seem to be pervasive. Odds are you make use of them without really being aware of it anymore. Your personal email is probably hosted in the cloud. If you’ve ever made a voice or video call using an app, a common feature in a post-COVID world, then you’ve made use of a cloud service to do so. Any streaming service you use, from Spotify to Showmax, is also based in the cloud.

It remains an arcane function of the technology world, particularly when it comes to South African businesses. The “cloud” is, for smaller businesses, a mysterious entity that may or may not be worth the time and effort it takes to investigate – a mistake that does these enterprises harm in a world steadily moving across to a virtualized, more connected work ecosystem.

PLAY WITH THE BIG BOYS

Cloud services have much to commend them to SA’s smaller companies. They’re a considerable equaliser, enabling enterprises without access to server infrastructure and the sorts of budgets that can afford dedicated technicians and a place to stash hardware, access to the same sorts of features multinational companies historically fielded.

And improving cost effectiveness means that even lumbering giants are switching their operations over to cloud-based services operated by a dedicated outfit. Several big names in cloud services have long been established in South Africa, with Chinese multinational Huawei the latest to initiate a large drive into the growing African datacentre market.