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INFOTECH: Laying the Foundation for Cloud Computing in South Africa
Recent Gauteng Business News
T-Systems in South Africa formally entered the cloud computing market yesterday with the introduction of its dynamic IT services offering, which will be available to customers in the second quarter of 2011.
"The dynamic services product meets the key considerations of pay-per-use and automatic provisioning; governance; clear service level agreements (SLAs); strong networking; and guarantees around security and storage," says Gert Schoonbee, Head of Sales, Major Accounts and Strategy at T-Systems in South Africa. "Customers can adapt their services as the need arises; fixed costs become variable and, most importantly, flexibility is taken to a whole new level."
The dynamic IT services solution of T-Systems is aligned with best practice IT frameworks and governance and regulations criteria, such as the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL, ISO 20 000), SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley), King III, ISO 9001 - 2008 and ISO Environmental Management regulations.
T-Systems backs up their dynamic IT services offering with SLAs on the delivery of service levels which guarantee the sourced cloud service of T-Systems' customers.
Rajan Padayachee, Vice President of ICT Operations at T-Systems in South Africa, says that it is important for companies to back up their cloud services with strong and reliable networking capability. "T-Systems is able to offer a stable platform with its ICT technology that will ensure their clients get the most from private cloud services."
Security and the safe storage of customers' data are vital considerations.
Questions customers should ask cloud providers include:
. Does your service provider have strict policies on who can access data? Confirm that companies working with your provider such as IT and facilities contractors or upstream and downstream technology providers (network, storage, etc.), won't have access to your information.
. Is your data being kept separate from other client's data and how is it being separated?
The increased proliferation and feasibility of private cloud computing sees businesses making a number of important decisions when starting their own, individual cloud computing strategies. "An organisation looking at cloud services should select a cloud partner who can meet the particular needs of their company. I believe that T-Systems are up to the challenge," concludes Padayachee.
Business News Sector Tags: Security| Infotech|