“By 2025, 80% of enterprises will have shut down their traditional data center, versus 10% today.” David Cappuccio, Gartner Research VP, 13^th April 2018

As enterprise moves to cloud computing models, traditional enterprise data centres are beginning to shut down. Cloud, together with a necessity to move applications closer to their users are reasons why Teraco, Africa’s first vendor neutral data centre provider, says that digital transformation is reshaping the face of IT and business.

Speaking ahead of the Gartner Symposium and ITxpo taking place at the CTICC from 17–19 September, Andrew Owens, Teraco peering and interconnection specialist, says the growing imperative to be at the edge of the Internet is driving digital transformation forward. A Gartner platinum partner, Teraco believe a key topic at the event will be the platforms and strategies utilised to build a network closer to the edge.

“In this race to the edge, interconnection and peering will lead the charge. Global and local cloud services are only as strong as the networks they use. These need to provide scale, interconnection ease and total flexibility,” says Owens.

Teraco provides cloud-onramp access to public cloud infrastructure providers like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure: “We have interconnection nodes in place for these leading cloud service providers. Through direct interconnection at these providers’ edge locations, clients experience significant latency improvements, greater proximity to the edge, improved content distribution and security at the edge. It is also much easier to migrate from connected to interconnected,” says Owens.

With over 12 500 interconnects to date, Owens says that cloud adoption by enterprise is becoming more mainstream with clients embracing the concept and quickly realising the immense benefits. By deploying at the Internet’s edge, clients will be better placed to take advantage of cloud technologies and services.

Andrew Owens will be presenting at the 2018 Gartner Summit/ITxpo 2018 on “Connecting Africa to the Cloud” alongside Andrew Mayes of Pick ‘n Pay, who will provide relevant insights from a recent cloud migration project.

The presentation is scheduled for 11:15am, Tuesday, 18 September at CTICC2.

Visit Teraco on stand PL4, Hall 5, Level 0, in CTICC2 and find out more about the home of cloud by visiting www.teraco.co.za