Kathy Gibson reports – Innovation is the lifeblood of the economy, and a required ingredient for success in any organisation.
Open source software and platforms could be the catalyst to spark this innovation, says Dion Harvey, regional GM of Red Hat Southern Africa opening Red Hat South Africa Day in Johannesburg this morning
In the post-Covid world, there is new sense of opportunity, Harvey says.
One thing that has come through strongly is that national barriers have gone down, creating a world market for commerce and for skills.
“But there is an opportunity around the world market for skills. The concept of remote working is real after two years of Covid.”
These lessons include how companies can take care of their people better, looking after their safety, tools and skills.
“Together with the sense of euphoria, there is a move to retooling for growth,” he adds.
In Africa, there are specific challenges, including new disrupters and disintermediation coming into the market to compete with the legacy players without the big overheads, while there is a holistic resilience to a globally-connected ecosystem.
Organisations have to balance their outdated and expensive operating models with the move to digital-only business concepts.
While these technology challenges are going on, companies also have to cope with inflation, interest rates, foreign currency and the electricity situation. Together with a complex regulatory environment and issues around data sovereignty in the cloud, there are many challenges that local organisations have to navigate.
Innovation is key in this environment, so organisations need to start building a platform for innovation, to become an Amazon-like company, Harvey says.
“This is our sweet spot: an open, hybrid cloud allows our customers to chase top-line growth, cost and efficiency saving, that adhere to risk and regulation constraints.
“Companies want to build these open, hybrid cloud environments now.”