According to the 2020 Cloud in Africa report, released in September last year, cloud technology helped business across sub-Saharan Africa to better manage the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Conducted by World Wide Worx in partnership with F5, DigiCloud Africa, and Dell Technologies, over 90% of study participants described cloud computing as being “important” in their response to the COVID-19 crisis; used to boost disaster recovery, aid remote work and improve customer service.

But just how important will cloud computing be in 2021? While most of us hoped that the coronavirus would be a distant memory by the time 2021 rolled around, it remains a reality as the pandemic continues to spread in many countries. As such, industry experts predict that the use of cloud computing will continue to rise and evolve as businesses attempt to make the best of this new reality.

Going forward, we expect cloud to remain at the forefront of essential technologies. Below, we’ve listed what cloud has to offer in 2021.

• As more and more enterprises and industries realise how cloud can protect them against the impact of future crises, cloud relevance will remain high.
• Hybrid cloud computing is expected to grow as it boosts scalability and security and reduces longer-term costs.
• Integration will be a big trend in 2021. Enterprises looking to simplify their processes will combine technologies such as cloud with big data and IoT.
• Security will be a hot topic. It follows and precedes nearly every kind of IT development. As the business’ digital perimeter expands, maintaining a firewall around a tight physical space is no longer possible. As such, security professionals must begin at the endpoint — wherever and whatever it is — and work back toward the centre.
• Cloud will be part of the business agenda, not just an IT concern. Gone are the days when cloud computing was seen as an IT-only topic.

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