Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 12 | Page 17

ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY aggressively and proactively will become victims of cloud shift and diminish their ability to compete for the new cloud-based solution opportunities. Cloud shift represents both risk and opportunity. During this period of market disruption, strategic planners should carefully watch the impact of cloud shift on traditional businesses. Weak practices Ossama Eldeeb, Senior Manager, MENA Partner Organisation, VMware. forecast to be $175 billion in 2017, growing to $181 billion through 2020. In contrast, spending on cloud system infrastructure services IaaS, will grow from $34 billion in 2017 to $71 billion through 2020. By the end of 2020, spending on IaaS will equate to 39% of total spending on datacentre systems. As spending shifts from traditional systems to cloud services, there is both great risk and opportunity. Through 2020, an increasing percentage of annual IT spending will be directly or indirectly impacted by a cloud shift, making cloud computing one of the most disruptive forces in IT markets since the early days of the digital age. When organisations are faced with IT spending decisions, the consideration of using cloud services for new initiatives, or to replace existing systems, causes a shift in spending from traditional IT solutions to cloud. This results in the cloud shift, and it is happening more often due to a cloud-first direction most organisations take when making IT spending decisions. “This cloud-first orientation will continue to increase the rate of cloud adoption and, consequently, cloud shift,” said Ed Anderson, Research Vice President, Gartner. “The rate of cloud shift will be different based on the dynamics of each market segment.” Cloud shift is not just about cloud. As organisations pursue new IT architectures and operating philosophies, they become prepared for new opportunities in digital Ed Anderson, Research Vice President, Gartner. Mohammed Shehata, CEO and Founding Partner of C-suITe Consulting. Mohannad Abuissa, Head of Sales Engineering East Region, Cisco ME. business, including next-generation IT solutions such as the Internet of Things. Organisations embracing dynamic, cloud-based operating models position themselves for cost optimisation and increased competitiveness. For these reasons, technology and service providers must be aggressive in recognising and exploiting IT spending shifts to capture the revenue opportunities of the future, and manage revenue of the past. Cloud shift is not necessarily inevitable, but trends indicate a preference for cloud services in most situations. Providers of all types must ensure they remain vigilant and proactive in pursuing new cloud-related growth opportunities, while divesting businesses that will become materially impacted by cloud shift. Providers that do not manage this change A key enabling technology for administration and operation of a modern- day datacentre is the use of a Datacentre Infrastructure Management tool. The uptake of Datacentre Infrastructure Management tools in the region, unfortunately, has been very slow and this has resulted in datacentres being inefficient and not well managed from an operational response perspective. “Those that have adopted Datacentre Infrastructure Management have not considered the actual needs required to be achieved by the tool and hence not customised it enough to realise the benefits that it could reap, which has unfairly reflected badly on some of the tools,” says Mohammed Shehata, CEO and Founding Partner of C-suITe Consulting. The adoption of cloud services or other XaaS solutions should have driven datacentres in the region in a different direction. “However, there are still what I refer to as server huggers who feel more comfortable having physical hardware rather than virtual hardware or no hardware at all, owned by the service provider,” says Shehata. “We are seeing initiatives driving more datacentre builds in the hope of more adoption of public cloud or hosting services, but with the major users of datacentres in the region being government entities, security of data is impacting potential adoption.” “The major challenge I have seen in the region is for CIOs to receive the information they need to be able to make strategic decisions for their organisation. As highlighted earlier, the lack of Datacentre Infrastructure Management results in a lack of clear and reliable data as well as business intelligence data, that 17