John F. Kennedy once observed that the word “crisis” in Chinese is composed of two characters – one representing danger, the other opportunity. He may not have been entirely correct on the linguistics, but the sentiment is true enough: a crisis presents a choice.
This is particularly true today. As we accelerate out of the pandemic, businesses need to change gears. To find their competitive edge once again and lead the way, they must switch from survival mode to innovation mode.
With the zettabyte era on the horizon time is of the essence. But history may be on their side – along with the latest as-a-service data management solutions that eliminate an element of risk when innovating.
While the Covid-19 pandemic has not affected all sectors or geographies equally, the major discontinuities it has introduced across markets, customer behaviours, and ways of working and living mark an inflection point in history. This is because history tells us that following periods of major disruptions that are non-financial in nature, like wars and pandemics, economies do bounce back. Take projected investments in digital transformation for example, IDC forecasts that there will be an increase of 2.8 percent in spending on IT this year in the META market (Middle East, Turkey and Africa), to a total of $77.5 billion.
In the midst of the digital revolution the pandemic has emphasised the importance of being digitally nimble. Those further into their journey towards digital transformation outperformed those only just stepping onto the bandwagon. They were more agile, resilient and able to pivot to new and urgent business needs.
As we look beyond the pandemic now, it’s time to hit the gas. While an air of cautiousness is natural, embracing a digital strategy that enables the kinds of innovations that position businesses as leaders is critical.
Innovation has always involved a balancing act with risk – creating a healthy tension that makes failure a clear part of the process. But for many the risk of failure is a barrier to innovation, along with legacy IT infrastructure that inhibits the ability to ‘fail fast’. For innovation to be truly effective, the ability to experiment at speed is key. Fast innovation cycles use less resources, budget and time, keeping businesses competitive.
In a recent McKinsey survey of more than 200 organisations across industries, more than 90 percent of executives said they expect the fallout from Covid-19 to fundamentally change the way they do business over the next five years. Almost as many (85 percent) admitted that the crisis will have a lasting impact on their customers’ needs. These figures assert innovation not as a luxury but as a real business need. However, only 21 percent are currently confident in their ability to capture new growth opportunities.
Confidence can be won over with access to the right data, at the right time, in the right ways – in order to make robust, real-time business decisions. The better a business knows its data; the more powerful insights can be gleaned from it and ultimately the bolder and more confident the innovation. Data management provides a vital key to unlocking opportunities, evolving to meet new and urgent customer demands while leading the way in the zettabyte era.
Gartner predicts that 75 percent of enterprise data will be created and processed outside the data centre or cloud by 2025.
There’s just one problem. As the term zettabyte era might suggest, the data deluge within which these opportunities can be found also risks overwhelming businesses that are not prepared for its exponential growth.
More than 59 zettabytes (ZB) of data were set to be created, captured, copied, and consumed in the world in 2020, according to the IDC’s Global DataSphere. It suggests that while the Covid-19 pandemic has hindered the creation of new unique data, the increased consumption of replicated data has fuelled the continued growth of the Global DataSphere. This growth is forecast to continue through to 2024 with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26 percent.
Data complexities will only deepen as new digital technologies come on stream. This means that investing in simplified, robust data management not only provides a balm for today’s challenges – but prepares businesses for tomorrow’s accelerated, data-driven world. What’s more, these new technologies will be driving business innovation.
It is essential that businesses are poised to amplify the opportunities presented by connected technologies, modern networking, 5G and analytics. Data collected at edge locations will become an increasingly valuable resource – Gartner predicts that 75 percent of enterprise data will be created and processed outside the data centre or cloud by 2025.
Businesses will need a consistent approach to infrastructure, data, applications and security as millions of systems are built at the edge.
This is where as-a-service data management tools come in. Organisations can scale IT as needed to launch new applications, kickstart new projects, and address the changing needs of their organisations – all managed by their technology provider.
As-a-service technology solutions are innovation gold. It’s time to be confident and bold – it’s time to build back a better world with simplified, as-a-service data management.
Martin Uchytil, regional sales director – Dell Financing – MERAT.
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By Martin Uchytil
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It’s innovation time: The as-a-service confidence boost
Why simplifying data management is the key to unlocking opportunity
John F. Kennedy once observed that the word “crisis” in Chinese is composed of two characters – one representing danger, the other opportunity. He may not have been entirely correct on the linguistics, but the sentiment is true enough: a crisis presents a choice.
This is particularly true today. As we accelerate out of the pandemic, businesses need to change gears. To find their competitive edge once again and lead the way, they must switch from survival mode to innovation mode.
With the zettabyte era on the horizon time is of the essence. But history may be on their side – along with the latest as-a-service data management solutions that eliminate an element of risk when innovating.
While the Covid-19 pandemic has not affected all sectors or geographies equally, the major discontinuities it has introduced across markets, customer behaviours, and ways of working and living mark an inflection point in history. This is because history tells us that following periods of major disruptions that are non-financial in nature, like wars and pandemics, economies do bounce back. Take projected investments in digital transformation for example, IDC forecasts that there will be an increase of 2.8 percent in spending on IT this year in the META market (Middle East, Turkey and Africa), to a total of $77.5 billion.
In the midst of the digital revolution the pandemic has emphasised the importance of being digitally nimble. Those further into their journey towards digital transformation outperformed those only just stepping onto the bandwagon. They were more agile, resilient and able to pivot to new and urgent business needs.
As we look beyond the pandemic now, it’s time to hit the gas. While an air of cautiousness is natural, embracing a digital strategy that enables the kinds of innovations that position businesses as leaders is critical.
Innovation has always involved a balancing act with risk – creating a healthy tension that makes failure a clear part of the process. But for many the risk of failure is a barrier to innovation, along with legacy IT infrastructure that inhibits the ability to ‘fail fast’. For innovation to be truly effective, the ability to experiment at speed is key. Fast innovation cycles use less resources, budget and time, keeping businesses competitive.
In a recent McKinsey survey of more than 200 organisations across industries, more than 90 percent of executives said they expect the fallout from Covid-19 to fundamentally change the way they do business over the next five years. Almost as many (85 percent) admitted that the crisis will have a lasting impact on their customers’ needs. These figures assert innovation not as a luxury but as a real business need. However, only 21 percent are currently confident in their ability to capture new growth opportunities.
Confidence can be won over with access to the right data, at the right time, in the right ways – in order to make robust, real-time business decisions. The better a business knows its data; the more powerful insights can be gleaned from it and ultimately the bolder and more confident the innovation. Data management provides a vital key to unlocking opportunities, evolving to meet new and urgent customer demands while leading the way in the zettabyte era.
There’s just one problem. As the term zettabyte era might suggest, the data deluge within which these opportunities can be found also risks overwhelming businesses that are not prepared for its exponential growth.
More than 59 zettabytes (ZB) of data were set to be created, captured, copied, and consumed in the world in 2020, according to the IDC’s Global DataSphere. It suggests that while the Covid-19 pandemic has hindered the creation of new unique data, the increased consumption of replicated data has fuelled the continued growth of the Global DataSphere. This growth is forecast to continue through to 2024 with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26 percent.
Data complexities will only deepen as new digital technologies come on stream. This means that investing in simplified, robust data management not only provides a balm for today’s challenges – but prepares businesses for tomorrow’s accelerated, data-driven world. What’s more, these new technologies will be driving business innovation.
It is essential that businesses are poised to amplify the opportunities presented by connected technologies, modern networking, 5G and analytics. Data collected at edge locations will become an increasingly valuable resource – Gartner predicts that 75 percent of enterprise data will be created and processed outside the data centre or cloud by 2025.
Businesses will need a consistent approach to infrastructure, data, applications and security as millions of systems are built at the edge.
This is where as-a-service data management tools come in. Organisations can scale IT as needed to launch new applications, kickstart new projects, and address the changing needs of their organisations – all managed by their technology provider.
As-a-service technology solutions are innovation gold. It’s time to be confident and bold – it’s time to build back a better world with simplified, as-a-service data management.
Martin Uchytil, regional sales director – Dell Financing – MERAT.
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