2024 Cloud and Security Conference — Dr Angus Hay of Africa Data Centres on the CIO’s dilemma
Dr Angus Hay, Regional Executive for South Africa at Africa Data Centres, recently featured on a panel at the MyBroadband Cloud & Security Conference 2024.
Dr Hay has a BSc (Eng) Elec and a PhD in digital transmission from the University of the Witwatersrand.
He served as Transtel’s CTO from 2001 to 2006 and then joined Neotel at its inception. He later became the company’s CTO.
Following Neotel’s acquisition by Liquid Telecom in early 2017, Dr Hay oversaw several major expansion projects at the latter company’s data centres.
Dr Hay also chaired the West Africa Cable System (WACS) management committee in 2012 and served as president of the SAIEE from 2010 to 2011.
Panel discussion
In the panel discussion, Dr Hay spoke about what he calls “the CIO’s dilemma.”
“Everyone knows the importance of the cloud, but in practice, no enterprise moves 100% to the cloud,” said Dr Hay.
“The challenge a lot of enterprises face is to build a strong hybrid cloud model upfront, knowing how you are going to spread your workloads across different platforms.”
He noted that certain applications for companies in sectors like financial services simply can’t be public cloud-native.
“The problem these companies face is that the on-premise data centres they run instead, don’t serve as a saved cost – they must still be maintained, fuelled with diesel during load-shedding, and more,” said Dr Hay.
“You’re often not saving money if you’re simultaneously running applications across the cloud and your on-premise data centre.”
Shifting data centre industry
Dr Hay also explained how expectations have shifted in the data centre industry.
Historically, there were three key areas where a company like Africa Data Centres had to succeed:
- 100% power availability.
- Physical security
- Connectivity
“These three pillars are no longer enough for our clients,” said Dr Hay.
“Companies all have ESG goals, and want to report on multiple levels — including on their suppliers.”
Africa Data Centres has adapted accordingly and now has its own carbon neutrality goals.
This focus on ESG is leading Africa Data Centres to extensively procure renewable energy and build its own renewable energy generation capabilities.
Click here to learn more about Africa Data Centres.
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