According to the founder of NBConsult, Nicolas Blank, 2018 is the year of the cloud for South African firms.

“Many companies are waiting for the African instance of the Microsoft Cloud data centre to land on our shores and only then will they implement their cloud strategy. But we believe that companies should strategise and plan as if the MS data centre is already here,” said Blank to ITWeb.

NBConsult witnessed how it’s easier for businesses to replace their data centre-based applications with cloud-based equivalents, either partly or completely by adopting a lift-and-shift approach, helping international clients move their workloads to Microsoft Cloud.

“The benefits go beyond simply moving a workload into the cloud. By following the right steps on your cloud journey, we are able to identify where customers can boost business performance and derive real value from the cloud,” continued Blank to ITPro.

Designed to enhance gains in cloud spending, ITPro believes local businesses can derive long-term, immediate value by the following steps:

Cloud ready – The initial stage assesses the customer’s readiness to adopt cloud services, entailing an exploratory workshop based offering, which may be zero-rated depending on the customer’s existing licensing agreements with Microsoft.

Cloud enabled – The cornerstone of this stage drives adoption while rapidly moving customer applications and data to the chosen cloud service provider.

Cloud improved – Identifying where continual value can be derived from cloud products, with services including managed licensing and cloud-based desktop support to information governance as a service, security, and DR as a service.

Written from source (ITPro) by Leah Alger