DEEP DIVE
What do you currently identify as the major areas of investment in your industry ?
If we look at the IT industry , there are several major areas of investment including cloud , cybersecurity , Artificial Intelligence , data analytics , Big Data , and unified communications . Unified communication has grown in importance recently . It slowed down for a while before the pandemic because it hit a plateau , but throughout the pandemic , innovations started to emerge again with all the demand for distributed working and communication for socialising and other reasons , such as education and healthcare . With all these changes and new requirements , the technology needed to evolve and innovation was needed to support all the different scenarios and use cases .
What are the region specific challenges that you encounter in your role ?
From a business perspective , adoption of cloud and subscription to cloud services needs a push in the region . It has accelerated , but not at the same pace as other markets such as the US , Europe and Asia . There is also a need for more cloud providers in the region , although the situation is improving .
There is also a shortage of digital talent , although things are getting better , and initiatives such as the
SEEING THE POTENTIAL IN THE DATA CENTRE INDUSTRY ALSO MADE ME CONTINUE IN THAT DIRECTION WITHIN THE IT INDUSTRY , IN THE SPECIFIC VERTICAL OF DATA CENTRE AND CLOUD .
VMware IT Academy are helping to encourage young people – both undergraduates and graduates – to gain real world IT skills including with VMware technology .
Another challenge is IT-spending by organisations . Many organisations in the region still don ’ t consider IT as being core to the business . IT expenditures suffer with this sort of mentality , and the lack of investment makes it more difficult for them to innovate . Organisations need to turn the conventional thinking on its head and view IT as core to the business and the driving force of innovation .
If a company doesn ’ t have a Digital Transformation plan , or an IT strategy as part of their business plan , they will not move forward at the speed of the market .
On a more personal level , one of the challenges in my role is managing people of so many different nationalities across a very broad and diverse region . For this reason , it ’ s important for me to understand the cross-cultural similarities and differences .
I used to travel all the time and now that ’ s been replaced with Zoom . It is a challenge to stay in touch with people that you used to see each month or even every week , but it ’ s been a learning experience in many ways .
We ’ re also helping organisations around the region maintain distributed workforces and use remote solutions , and it ’ s something I can relate to having lived the experience myself .
What changes to your job role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in the coming months ?
The main change in my role has been to embrace the new normal , particularly in terms of maintaining a strong relationship with colleagues and partners while working remotely . I had to learn all about how remote solutions applied to various verticals such as education , healthcare and retail , so that I could provide valuable insights to customers on how they could use technology to adapt to the pandemic . ◊ www . intelligentdatacentres . com
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