The next five years will be marked by the transition to the public cloud.
Gérard Hoffmann, Chairman & Managing Director of Proximus NXT, discusses the challenge of the transition to the public cloud for businesses, as well as the associated governance issues. He also highlights the importance for an actor such as Proximus NXT to remain as close as possible to its clients’ business challenges.
The Luxembourg regulatory framework is opening up, enabling easier access to the public cloud. How is Proximus NXT positioning itself in this new environment?
Luxembourg is no different from the rest of the world. The overall trend among economic players is a gradual move towards the public cloud. The Luxembourg framework, with the new law on professional secrecy recently passed and the cloud circular issued by the regulator, will notably allow the use of public cloud in the financial sector. For us, this technology is a growth driver. Currently, only about 2% of companies’ global activity relies on the public cloud. The transition will be gradual, but it will happen. This represents a major open market that we intend to address with our offering. The next five years will be those of the transition to the public cloud. Our strength today lies in our ability to combine private and public cloud, depending on the client’s needs.
Under what circumstances should organisations consider moving to the public cloud?
From a technical resource perspective, the private cloud is not necessarily more expensive than the public cloud. It is in the associated services, support, and systems management that costs can differ. In general, the choice between the two models is not based solely on cost. The public cloud is probably the most suitable solution when resources need to scale rapidly, when multiple environments must be deployed quickly in a fast-growth context. For organisations that require a stable environment, the private cloud remains an attractive model. And both models can coexist very well. Today, we already enable our clients to access the public cloud thanks to our partnership with Microsoft Azure. We are also in discussions with Google, which is taking a very ambitious position in this sector. Depending on our clients’ needs, we can assess the opportunities offered by these public clouds and their ecosystems of solutions. With our expertise, our role is to support our clients with a close, hands-on service in deploying an IT environment tailored to their needs—whether private cloud, public cloud, or both—and in implementing optimal governance.
With the rise of the public cloud, the role of integrators and operators has fundamentally changed… As IT resources become commoditised, how do you create value?
We support our clients and invest in innovation to remain as close as possible to their business needs. We have also invested in FinTech, developing solutions that address various market requirements. In particular, we have developed an application toolset that helps financial players better meet KYC requirements. We are also developing Blockchain-related applications, with a focus on the financial sector. Another area of development is PSD2, enabling banks to open up more easily. Further developments are also planned in the field of artificial intelligence. We remain focused on integration, with solutions developed in-house or sourced externally—from start-ups, for example—to meet client needs. Through these solutions, properly integrated into a coherent IT environment, we support our clients in their evolution.
