Cloud transition is critical to digital transformation
There’s no doubt cloud computing is a key driving factor in the digital transformation (DX) impacting every single sector from retail to financial services, manufacturing to heavy industry. Through the cloud, new digital-centric businesses are emerging that are more agile and innovative than anything seen before. Enterprises are having to worry about these new, agile competitors, while simultaneously dealing with upheaval on a massive scale that they have never experienced before. The challenge is clear: disrupt or be disrupted.
For long-established enterprises, however, this is particularly difficult. They’re not like the new start-up competition; they have legacy systems and applications that cannot be virtualized and migrated to the cloud, and customers relying on the flawless and ceaseless delivery of their services. Furthermore, due to governance, compliance, and regulatory (GRC) requirements some of the digital assets have to stay on-premises. Therefore, the road ahead is more complicated than simply migrating infrastructure and applications to the cloud.
The role of the CIO
With this in mind, the cloud transition, and DX as a whole needs to be managed carefully to ensure the continuation of service and the best outcomes for the business. This responsibility has become that of the CIO, who must endeavour to maintain order and lay the foundations for the future. This is especially true when you consider how the change of pace is quickening and at the centre of DX are a variety of new technologies that span the edge, core, and cloud of the service delivery infrastructure. These technologies are the foundation for the ‘Pillars of Innovation’, namely Big Data Analytics, Cloud & XaaS and IoT, among others.
The DX journey is perpetual and depends on constant innovation implemented through new business services. These are delivered via the Pillars of Innovation and the CIO is ideally positioned to oversee this. Fundamentally, the right tool to assure successful digital transformation needs to be future proof and:
If the transition is managed properly, the benefits of the move to the cloud is clear – enterprises will gain the ability to increase infrastructure capacity with no additional capital expenses and quickly deploy new services as mandated by the business needs. However, it is important to consider that in the process, enterprises risk losing visibility and control over the data and the quality of service delivery. It is crucial that this risk is mitigated effectively.
Enterprises must remember that successful cloud-based disruption is not only about delivering transformational customer and business services. It is about delivering them well.
