A survey conducted by ITWeb in partnership with Huawei and BNI shows that South African businesses are increasingly shifting their focus from basic infrastructure resilience to modernising complex IT environments to support AI, cloud and other emerging workloads.
Huawei Partner Development Manager Paseka Mike Selepe said organisations have made significant investments in resilience, but the growing challenge is developing the skills and capabilities needed to manage increasingly complex infrastructure.
The survey found that 88% of respondents considered their IT environments resilient to external pressures, while 89% were confident their organisations could continue operating if their core IT infrastructure was disrupted.
However, readiness for AI-driven workloads remains mixed. 48% said their infrastructure was partially ready and required upgrades, while 35% considered their environments fully ready and scalable. Huawei noted that this highlights the need for infrastructure that is more automated, programmable and adaptable.
Huawei also identified integration, standardisation and visibility as key priorities. While 40% of organisations reported fully standardised and centrally managed networks, others continue to operate fragmented environments across branches and locations, increasing operational costs and making security and troubleshooting more difficult.
On security, Huawei is advocating for stronger identity-based access and Zero Trust approaches as organisations connect more users, devices and IoT systems. Selepe stressed that authentication is increasingly becoming a business-enablement issue rather than simply a security control.
Looking ahead, 45% of respondents expect significant modernisation of their data centre and network environments within the next two to three years, including automation, software-defined networking and cloud integration.
Huawei says successful modernisation will not simply be about replacing technology, but about aligning technology, skills and operating models to help businesses respond faster to changing demands, improve security and support digital growth.
Source : Source : www.techafricanews.com
