The silver lining to cloud challenges

The benefits of taking your business onto the cloud are plentiful — from reduced business costs and increased business continuity to improved scalability, collaboration efficiency, flexibility and access to automatic system updates.

Cisco’s Chief Technology Officer, Tjerk Bijlsma, says the silver lining is evident, but unfortunately there is also a downside. Many of the challenges in this space are related to compliance and government regulation: “What we’re seeing is a push to add sovereignty issues and their impact to the cloud conversation.”

He says that if countries start pushing their own agendas and specifying localisation of industry and operation then the concept of cloud and economics of scale that make it so appealing as an operating model will be lost. “Suddenly the cost of everything will skyrocket,” he explains. For example, if South Africa were to suddenly specify that data centres cannot be managed from the United States, then many of the service offerings from the hyperscalers would be lost to the local market.

“The operating model and concepts that underlie it are fantastic, and so are the technology and tech developments, but we are also seeing a very real need for rules and regulations — and a push for more control — when it comes to privacy and data sharing,” says Bijlsma. “There is therefore also a need to find a way to work with and through the regulations that are being implemented by a number of countries globally.”

These regulations are something that Bijlsma predicts will only get more stringent over time. Cisco and its teams are, however, ready to consult with businesses to find the best cloud solutions for their unique environment and context, carefully weighing up the benefits and drawbacks of the various options available to ensure optimal functionality — today and into the future.