DATA CENTRE PREDICTIONS
Julian Thomas, Principle Consultant at
PBT Group
centre services as an overall solution to
the data conundrum.
Of course, the migration journey of a
data centre into the cloud for larger
corporates or corporates that have been
in existence for some time is a lengthy
one and while it may be easier for a new
business or a new department/system to
take advantage of the cloud’s full benefits
immediately, it’s important for businesses
looking to move their data centre
requirements into the cloud – no matter
their size or years of operation – to be
realistic about the transition.
Moving core operations and systems
into a new environment cannot happen
overnight. A common misconception that
used to exist when cloud was still in its
inception, is that data can be unplugged
from the on-premise data centre and
plugged straight into the cloud. It
obviously isn’t as simple as that.
For this very reason, there is a growing
acceptance by decision makers to follow
a comprehensive business-first strategy
before migrating services to the cloud,
especially since technology-first adoption
strategies have not always proved
successful in recent years.
Below are some of the influencing factors
to a far more slow-paced transition:
Technical challenges – Ground and
prep work are undoubtedly crucial for
a business to transition as seamlessly
as possible. Moving a business’ core
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infrastructure or the core integrated
operations into a new platform cannot
happen without disruption. Depending
on the company size, it is important to
phase transition to provide a ‘feel’ for
the new environment and to reduce
risk, which is why we can expect to see
many corporates prioritise their newer
businesses or less critical systems for the
initial cloud migration. When a company
moves a system to a new environment,
it is important to have full scope of what
that system is connected to and what the
effects of disconnecting it or applying it
into a new platform would be.
Existing contracts – Contracts are
arguably the biggest stumbling block for a
business looking to venture into the cloud.
By virtue of having an existing data centre
in place, whether run internally or by a
vendor, there are contracts in place for
hardware, software and technical support.
Quite often, businesses embark on cloud
data centre migration initiatives as part
of their cloud strategy, only to come up
short when they realise that the extent of
the existing contracts prevent them from
moving systems for years, i.e. until an
existing services and maintenance contract
expires. The challenge then becomes
how to co-ordinate the migration of core
operating systems to the cloud, within
a set time frame to conclude with the
expiration of the existing contract. Complex
implementation scenarios requiring parallel
systems feeds, co-existence strategies, etc
then become part of the challenge.
WE CAN EXPECT A
CONTINUED AND
RENEWED FOCUS
ON MOVING ON-
PREMISE DATA
INTO THE CLOUD
ENVIRONMENT
AND CONTINUED
ADOPTION OF
CLOUD-BASED
DATA CENTRE
SERVICES AS
AN OVERALL
SOLUTION TO THE
DATA CONUNDRUM.
Human resources – A business needs
to consider the HR implications of
retrenching or re-skilling existing staff
that might be made redundant due to a
wholesale migration of the IT data centre
into the cloud.
Regulation – Some companies, like
those in the banking environment,
were sceptical to adopt cloud given the
ambiguity that existed around the growing
need for local data centres as regulations
have become stricter in the global and
local environments related to personal
information. As a result, we can expect
to see some sectors experience a slower
adoption journey while regulations like
the Protection of Personal Information act
(POPI) become more comprehensive.
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