Marcel Heilijgers, executive director of the Cloud Credential Council (CCC). (twitter.com)
Speaking at the Cloud World Forum Africa conference, in Johannesburg, yesterday, Marcel Heilijgers, executive director of the CCC, said while their operations are currently most heavily based in the US and East Asia, they already have training partners in South Africa and Egypt.
He said: “The cloud essentials are already in South Africa. Going forward we will be looking to take on more partners and we really want to have a global presence.
“We are trying to raise awareness that there is training out there. We see there is a demand for it, but we need to let people know about it.”
Around 30 per cent of organisations globally have already adopted some kind of cloud services and that proportion is expected to increase dramatically in the next three years.
Around 50 per cent of chief information officers (CIOs) are choosing to pilot cloud systems before adopting them.
The CCC’s mission is to “accelerate successful cloud adoption through world-class training and certification”.
It is a not-for-profit organisation which offers industry training and certification for cloud skills.
Heilijgers said: “It [cloud] is real and there is quite a bit of potential to transform your business with cloud. What we all want is services that run better, faster and cheaper.”
He added IT departments are currently focused 89 per cent of the time on just “keeping the lights on”, leaving only 11 per cent of time for innovation.
With the introduction of cloud services, much more time can be focused on innovating and adding value to the company, according to Heilijgers.
Heilijgers chose Netflix as an example of a company which has transformed its business with the use of cloud.
Previously it was a postal DVD rental service, but by moving to online streaming and storing its data in the cloud it has managed rapid growth and been able to expand capacity in line with its increase in users.
