Absa group chief technology officer Andrew Baker
Financial services group Absa has launched a cloud incubator initiative in collaboration with cloud services multinational Amazon Web Services (AWS) to enhance the cloud computing skills across its operations in Africa.
The cloud incubator initiative will equip more than 1 500 staff across Absa’s African operations with advanced cloud computing skills this year.
As one of the largest cloud adopters in Africa, Absa is promoting cloud fluency as part of its broader efforts to promote learning, experimentation and innovation across the organisation to enhance the banking experience for its customers, the company said in an April 8 statement.
A key outcome for Absa’s internal cloud incubator participants is that they will be able to identify cloud opportunities within their businesses and create more efficient, scalable services and solutions. Employees will have the confidence to innovate faster and experiment more to drive broad-scale digital transformation across the business.
“Using cloud allows us to store much more data cost-efficiently, compared with physical data centres. Cloud has already improved our ability to manage and access data and will enable us to bring products to market faster. Cloud is rapidly becoming the norm for large companies, a trend that was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, which prompted a step-change in digital solutions,” said Absa group chief technology officer Andrew Baker.
“Accelerating cloud adoption will have a significant impact on Absa’s ability to innovate, offer new value propositions, and play a meaningful role in our customers’ and clients’ experiences,” he said.
By migrating to the cloud, companies can eliminate the expense of building and managing on-site data centres while gaining the ability to reduce infrastructure costs and scale up and down rather than paying for excess on-premises capacity.
To support its cloud transformation, Absa has launched the internal cloud incubator programme to participate in AWS’s Skills Guild initiative, which is a comprehensive cloud skills training programme designed to help large enterprise organisations accelerate their cloud adoption journey and build cloud fluency for their employees.
“The AWS Skills Guild offers enterprises a comprehensive approach to organization-wide cloud enablement, and is designed to not only impart cloud skills, but create excitement, momentum, and accelerate paths to innovation,” said AWS in South Africa commercial sector leader Chris Erasmus.
“AWS Skills Guild is based on our experience building enterprise-wide skills transformation plans for our customers across the globe, including National Australia Bank, Deloitte, Kmart Group and many more,” he explained.