By Olof Neser, Head of Cloud Adoption at Absa
Digital transformation is often spoken about as a technology challenge, which contributes towards businesses underestimating how disruptive it can become once it moves beyond the IT department. The mistake is in the word “digital” because it encourages companies to think they are buying or installing something when what should change is the business itself.
A new platform can be deployed in months, but problems may arise when people inside the organisation are asked to work differently, share information differently, justify decisions differently, or give up long-practised processes because nobody previously interrogated the cost of keeping them. Many transformation projects stall after the technology arrives: the migration may be complete, but the business is still trying to operate as though nothing fundamental has changed.
Over time, digital transformation forces businesses to rethink how they operate across the organisation, whether that means giving teams tools that allow them to move faster, building internal skills that make systems part of everyday problem-solving, or adjusting to environments where infrastructure and software can be deployed almost instantly.
The biggest enabler of this type of transformation over the past decade has been cloud adoption, particularly given the pace of uptake accelerating across Africa in recent years.
According to PwC, African organisations have moved from basic cloud adoption towards far more mature and strategic implementation, with over 86% of organisations reporting medium or high cloud maturity in 2025, up from 61% just two years earlier. Cloud has made advanced capabilities like AI, machine learning, and large-scale data platforms far more accessible, especially for businesses that previously would have needed significant upfront investment before rolling out those technologies properly. For example, Absa accelerated its multi-cloud adoption strategy to strengthen resilience, flexibility, and compliance across its markets. In 2025 alone its cloud adoption rate tripled, resulting in more than 35% of its technology estate having transitioned to the cloud by year end.
Now, the conversation is no longer about whether businesses should adopt cloud, but how quickly they can use it to improve how the organisation operates and competes.
The outcomes of applying cloud translate into more empowered teams using the right platforms and cloud-native services and being equipped with cloud skills that allow them to experiment, solve, and scale. Agility becomes a key outcome as organisations decide how to build, from faster release cycles to on-demand infrastructure.
Cloud provides the flexibility and scale to support this. It’s the engine behind design, testing, and launches, and the way businesses respond when conditions change. It’s a significant driver of unlocking innovation and advanced capabilities, from AI to machine learning and big data platforms.
Much, however, still depends on leadership mindset. Their role is to create the conditions for adoption by ensuring people are trained and empowered to use the new tools in meaningful ways for the business. Many organisations now invest heavily in continuous learning for exactly this reason. “For example, Absa accelerated its cloud adoption strategy to strengthen resilience, flexibility, and compliance across its markets. In 2025 alone its cloud migration rate tripled, resulting in more than 35% of its technology estate having transitioned to the cloud by year end.”
As businesses become more dependent on cloud, governance becomes more important because the pace at which teams can introduce innovative technologies may create operational complexity quickly if the business loses sight over how those systems are being used. Governance and compliance can no longer sit separately from day-to-day operations or exist in the background only as oversight functions. Businesses that manage this well build governance directly into how teams work, allowing people to move faster because they already know how these technologies should be used across the organisation. They balance innovation with operational discipline and control. In maintaining performance and uptime, they uphold a strong governance framework with clear policies and security measures.
Digital transformation implies a shift from static legacy environments to dynamic living systems that evolve continuously in response to data, scale with demand and respond in real time. As we adapt to the cloud, our clients benefit from an improved customer experience, faster decision-making from us, and the benefits new business models bring.
Across much of Africa, cloud adoption is already moving beyond migration into a more operational phase where businesses have to think about what comes after implementation.
The challenge now is whether organisations can mature the systems and the ways of working which form around these technologies quickly enough to create meaningful value, particularly as AI and other advanced capabilities become more deeply integrated into day-to-day operations. The businesses that will succeed will be those where adoption is supported by clear strategic direction, strong operational discipline, and cultures where continuous learning becomes part of how the organisation evolves alongside the technology itself.
Cloud is not merely an enabler of digital transformation. It is the very foundation of it. Cloud continues to support how financial services experiment, collaborate, and improve. It provides the flexibility to move fast, the scale underlying growth, and the tools to build for the future, securely, efficiently, and with strong purpose.
Source: Absa.
Photo credit: Absa.
