Logicode kicks off drive for Oracle Cloud Services in Zimbabwe

Helen Mabika Timm, the Managing Director of Logicode

What the hell is cloud computing?

It’s hard to believe those words were uttered by Larry Ellison, the founder, chairman and CTO of Oracle Corporation. Sure, this was back in 2008, but that delivery has been brought up time and again to show how changes in technology can’t always be predicted.

Right now, Oracle has made heavy bets on cloud computing and it has flipped the script on its “data company ” tag, becoming one of the larger cloud computing enterprises. This has been represented by a presence in three layers of cloud computing, where it now handles Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service concerns.

All of these changes have now trickled down to every segment that it services. Taking a lead in that rollout, Logicode, a Zimbabwean Oracle Gold Partner which has been pushing Oracle services for close to half a decade, recently held an Oracle Cloud Services familiarisation workshop in Harare.

Part of Logicode’s existing clients and some potential users from both large and small scale enterprises were present for the half-day event, and they were brought up to speed on the full scale of what Oracle’s embrace of cloud services means for Zimbabwean enterprises.

By any measure, a migration to cloud services makes a lot of sense. There’s the now common litany of advantages such as agility, scalability, security, automation and efficiency.

But beyond that, for the software and enterpise vendors like Oracle, this means having the ability to provide software for its clients while being ready to run it for them as well. The multi-layered approch to cloud computing (SaaS, PaaS and IaaS) adopted by Oracle allows that.

However, all forms of disruption have their burning effects, even if its at just the beginning. This new approach will mean the revision of the license and support business model that companies like Logicode and other enterpise vendors have relied on.

Helen Mabika Timm, the Managing director of Logicode, says that this is a necessary transition, considering the value they will be able to extend to their clients. She admitted that in the short term revenue will be squeezed, as cloud services have a lower pricing index, when comapred to the previous model on licensing.

However, the new technology will mean open access to services that can be extended to even more enterprises, something that is also beiing complemented by a growing internet presence. Timm believes that Oracle is able to accomodate even the smallest of entities, something that she says is needed in an environment like ours where the economy is now being driven by smaller sized business enterprises.

It’s the same gospel that is being preached by Oracle’s competitors like Salesforce, Microsoft, Amazon and even SAP, which as a very visible enterpise application provider, especially in the Zimbabean market has also dabbled in cloud services.

Locally there are partners for these corporations that will also be pushing the same agenda, especially for their existing clients. Timm is of the impression that Oracle services will, as always, offer solid competition and with a more integrated approach to Cloud services, it could just dusrupt the market in its own way.