Clinton Jacobs, Senior Analyst at BMI-TechKnowledge, said based on an overview of the South African Data Centre and Cloud Computing Services market, cloud services experienced 29% growth last year and is forecast to reach R6,4 billion by 2020.

At a SAP & Dimension Data enterprise cloud event, hosted recently in Johannesburg, Jacobs explained that the South African market is ready for the cloud, particularly given the available data centre resources and connectivity that exists.

He said there is 50km² of IT white space in commercial data centres, representing 60% utilisation across industries – excluding the banking and the public sector.

"Data centre space is primed for cloud computing," he added. "The challenge is cloud computing assumes ubiquitous connectivity ...."Jacobs said.

He also pointed to the extensive rollout of fibre and wireless connectivity services as indicative of the local market's readiness to embrace the cloud.

Agility in approach

Key take-outs from the research indicate that customers are more thoughtful in their approach to- and adoption of cloud, with many opting for exchange and hosted PBX on shared platforms, as well as development and testing as initial exploits into the cloud.

Flexibility is an attraction for clients and many are eager to exploit the ability to leverage a utilisation-based model.

Additionally, the hybrid cloud service model seems to be preferred, especially among larger corporates.

According to analysis issues that impact on further cloud service adoption include skills availability, varying levels of maturity in organisations, an appreciation of the roles and responsibilities that typify the cloud services arrangement, as well as data sovereignty,

Despite the challenges, service providers and analysts seem to agree that there is a strong sense of the opportunity that does exist in cloud service adoption.

Agility and cost reduction are also drivers according to Jacobs.

He mentioned the relevance of what Gartner has called Bimodal IT, or the emergence of two modes of IT delivery – one focused on stability, the other on agility.

There is a tendency for organisations and companies to be too operationally focused, and there is an understanding in the market that cloud engagement equates to agility, and the need to reduce overall cost of IT while delivering business value.

"Consumption is the new currency in this environment," said Jacobs.

SAP has referred to a recent Oxford Economics Cloud Survey amongst CIOs which indicated that 69% of companies are making significant investments in Cloud technology, and that 31% of companies have indicated that Cloud has already made a transformative impact on business performance.