INTELLIGENT CLOUD
According
to Gartner,
by 2020 a
corporate no-
cloud policy will
be as rare as
a no-internet
policy is today.
end up working with various technology
vendors and either follow the application
stack presence or procure and contract
directly with cloud vendors.
While a trend in the Middle East, this
is exactly the situation organisations want
to avoid, as it will lead to fragmented IT
operations, increased risk and inefficient
approach to deliver IT. When businesses
host their application with vendors who
they can provision instantly and pay as
they go, instead of a holistic approach, it
limits the enterprise’s ability to see the
value-added benefits they expect from
their IT investment.
Enterprise IT is about enabling the
business to operate efficiently and innovate
in a flexible operational model. Establishing
a flexible IT solution roadmap is critical
to cater for all business requirements, and
it needs to be redesigned with the entire
enterprise in mind.
Technology leaders play a key role
in enabling organisational innovation,
through rapid and strategic adoption
of technology. Today’s digitalised
consumers expect personalised and
responsive experiences that fulfil known
requirements and anticipate their needs.
These needs are now the benchmark, and
will not diminish with time. Therefore,
advanced infrastructure solutions are the
only way forward. It is no longer a matter
of if, but how.
One of the key questions an IT leader
should consider is the right mix of cloud
34
and traditional infrastructure required
to run the existing business, support
innovation and successfully adopt a multi-
vendor operating model.
The main challenge is to ensure that
you have the breath of design thinking
skills across your technology adoption
approach. An architecture expertise
plays an essential role to designing
the enterprise ICT needs, taking
into consideration business security,
integration and resiliency requirements.
Without the heavy uplift of people,
process and technology across
architecture, governance and service
management, a change can lead to
fragmented IT processes within an
enterprise and, even worse, a high-risk IT
operation model that would be susceptible
to cyber crime. A concentrated effort
on integration, policy standardisation,
operations, cross-provider provisioning
and end-user empowerment when
implementing a successful hybrid strategy
is the only way forward.
In conclusion, for IT leaders to remain
competitive and appealing to the business,
they must consider their innovation
journey and plan for an holistic IT
approach. Technology leaders must unlock
the value of enterprise IT with these
strategic initiatives:
Get visibility and control over the
enterprise IT landscape
Deliver applications faster and scale
infrastructure to meet digital demand
Implement an as-a-Service IT model
in partnership with strategic service
providers
Standardise technology and processes
by establishing a software defined
environment
Redesign for the entire enterprise for
real value-adding IT investment
As technology leaders play a critical
role in creating business value, IT
organisations of the future should be
proactive in re-evaluating their enterprise
IT strategy to remain competitive and to
enable enterprise-wide innovation. Or
risk loss of business and direct impact to
market growth.
Issue 12
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS