a revolutionary force<\/a> in the industry, rather than a minor innovation.<\/p>\n\u201cIn fact,\u201d he argues, \u201cthese organisations embraced cloud-like technologies and working styles within the consumer world years ago. In addition, individuals have been comfortable with and adept at using workloads in the cloud for some time. It\u2019s estimated there are about 560 million Skype users, and we recently saw 35 million users communicating simultaneously\u00b9. Since the rise of Web 2.0, users have become accustomed to sharing information, opinions and data through websites.<\/p>\n
\u201cMicrosoft realised these consumer-driven behaviours and technologies would find their way into the workplace. They\u2019ve also learnt that if the interface isn\u2019t intuitive and users aren\u2019t comfortable with a new technology, they simply won\u2019t use it,\u201d he says, and points out that the result has been in the release of corporate versions of consumer tools.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake, for example, Microsoft\u2019s collaboration platform, SharePoint. Consumers are used to collaborating and posting content in the cloud. SharePoint adds corporate features such as security, management, and integration with other enterprise tools.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bunch believes companies that are on track to not only survive \u2013 but thrive \u2013 in an increasingly cloud-dominated world are those that are finding ways to sidestep potential pitfalls associated with licensing, which the pay-per-use aspect of the cloud model could complicate.<\/p>\n
\u201cDimension Data has worked with Microsoft to enable clients to buy cloud services just like enterprise software or through traditional cloud utility-based pricing models. It provides organisations with flexibility and offers consumption models that go beyond traditional consumer and small business models to match the needs of large corporate, international and global clientele. Dimension Data is combining its experience of how enterprise clients use their Microsoft technology, enabling them to leverage those investments as they move to the cloud,\u201d says Bunch.<\/p>\n
In it for the long haul<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\nAnother reason that some of the larger technology companies will continue to succeed as cloud moves into the mainstream is the fact that they \u2013 often publicly \u2013 placed their bets on cloud computing, and invested heavily in capabilities that would ultimately enable them to transition their existing services in the cloud. These companies are increasingly designing their products to be more cloud-enabled from an architecture perspective.<\/p>\n
Microsoft Exchange is a case in point: it\u2019s the most widely used messaging system in the world, and the predominant vehicle through which people access it is through Outlook. About ten years ago, Microsoft made it simple by adding functionality that enables Outlook 2003 to be accessed both online and offline, and enabled the platform for cloud. Today, Exchange is the most widely used enterprise messaging system in the world \u2013 and, by association, in the cloud.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the company retains a competitive edge with its relatively mature and full-featured Azure cloud platform, Hyper-V virtualisation, System Centre suite of technologies, and increasingly powerful line-up of cloud-enabled applications. This could be why Dimension Data has migrated over one million end-users to Microsoft cloud-based business productivity solutions.<\/p>\n
More choice, less disruption<\/strong><\/p>\nAccording to Bunch, the move to the cloud by business is not going to happen overnight. This is borne out of the fact that early adopters realised they needed to ensure they understood \u2013 and accommodated \u2013 their clients\u2019 varied paces of adoption, within their products suites.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe consistency and minimal disruption to business as usual \u2013 from a pricing, licensing and user-experience perspective \u2013 are critical when transitioning to the cloud,\u201d says Bunch, adding that Microsoft, as a Dimension Data partner, emerges as the clear winner. \u201cAll users in the cloud at the lowest possible cost is one thing, but many clients are looking for a journey that can only be provided by a partnership like the one that exists between Dimension Data and Microsoft to migrate them at their own pace, on their own terms.<\/p>\n
\u201cIT and end-users are already familiar with the technologies they will use in the cloud. That\u2019s because they use them in a similar way on-premise today. Dimension Data and Microsoft\u2019s objective is to provide choice \u2013 whether it\u2019s on-premise, in a hybrid model or completely in the public cloud with the goal of enduring that the technology, user experience and management are all largely the same \u2013 so organisations can move at their own pace,\u201d says Bunch.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00b9 http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Skype<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cloud computing is a disruptive market force to traditional IT business operations, with its pay-as-you-go consumption model, and asset-light delivery of key business applications and services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dimensiondata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dimensiondata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dimensiondata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dimensiondata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dimensiondata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dimensiondata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1162,"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dimensiondata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions\/1162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dimensiondata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dimensiondata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dimensiondata\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}