IDC held its CIO Summit and IDC Directions conferences in Johannesburg.
Kathy Gibson reported from both events
SA tech industry looks forward to continued growth
South Africa’s economic growth is still low, while unemployment has hit historic highs, driving negative sentiment in the local market.
But there is good news, according to Mark Walker, associate vice-president: data and analytics at IDC, who says that the technology sector can help to solve a lot of the challenges we are facing.
The ICT market is still growing, Walker adds, even if it’s not at rates most in the industry would like – but it’s tracking well against comparable African markets.
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What do companies want from cloud?
May 12, 2022
Kathy Gibson is at IDC Directions – The cloud discussion is no longer just around the public cloud, but rather about cloud technologies and methodologies on a variety of platforms.
“Many CIOs have brought workloads back on-premise, but with a clear view of achieving cloud-like benefits,” points out Jon Tullett, senior research manager: IT services (Africa) at IDC.
These benefits are mostly seen to be internal, with a view to achieving operational efficiencies.
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CIOs embrace post-pandemic realities in a digital-first world
Many companies have brought forward their digital transformation projects by two years or more in response to the global pandemic – and they are reaping the benefit – but CIOs need to prepare now for the post-pandemic environment.
Jyoti Lalchandani, group vice-president and regional MD: Middle East, Turkey and Africa (META) at IDC, points out that 59% of organisations have seen increased cost-efficiency through digitalisation.
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Digital transformation goes beyond the tech
There can be no doubt about the need for digital transformation as business needs undergo rapid and often disruptive change.
An AWS survey demonstrates that 94% of business leaders say the pandemic forced accelerated transformation, fast-tracking them by 29 months.
This is particularly true in South Africa, says Terrence Naidoo, solution architecture leader at Amazon Web Services.
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Adaptability and the need to change
People and organisations change for one of two reasons: they are forced to change; or they want to. But often the work required to make a change is just too daunting and they give up.
This is according to Aurelia Edwards, enterprise architect at Workday, who adds that the pandemic has demonstrated how important it is to prepare for constant change.
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