Paul Spagnoletti, executive head of cloud and security at Synthesis Software Technologies

As the hyperscalers entered the country, South Africa’s cloud spend, unsurprisingly, surged. It also changed user behaviour. “There was this massive uptake, which was really exciting,” says Paul Spagnoletti, executive head of cloud and security at Synthesis Software Technologies. “But for most cloud service providers, last year was tough.” Alongside an economic downturn, a lot of large organisations experienced changes in leadership, which put a pause on projects. “Cloud didn’t stop, but spend was curtailed quite dramatically, making it a hard year for most,” he says. “This year, I’m seeing quite a bit of uptake again in cloud spend and adoption.”

Spagnoletti has seen a definite shift in how organisations move to the cloud. He says that those businesses that have gone through the hype cycle, where moving to the cloud is what everyone is doing, have now developed a sense of maturity around what the hyperscalers offer beyond cost and scalability. “The days of having a data conversation and a [separate] cloud conversation are gone – they’re synonymous with each other and they intertwine,” he says. “Any service provider that cannot bring those two conversations together or provide that as a service is struggling. Just providing a cloud platform isn’t enough – organisations are wanting value from a data point as well.”