Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 17 | Page 25

FUTURE TECHNOLOGY The digital workplace is still our top selling go to market - but the game has expanded, and the game is now on the intelligent edge. Osama AlHaj-Issa, Regional Channel Director, Middle East, Turkey, Africa at HPE Aruba. D istributed organisations such as retail, hospitality and healthcare are undergoing digital transformation to better meet evolving business objectives and compete within their industries. This frequently means that IT must improve operations, deploy new services faster and deliver an enhanced and secure user experience. Cloud-based services are driving rapid change across industries, especially as organisations transition to software-as-a-service applications in greater volume. The influx of mobile devices and Internet of Things, and the increasing demand for bandwidth also changes how the LAN and WAN must be managed moving forward. By 2023, 70% of enterprises will rely on the Internet for branch and remote office connections to the head office, just as 20 billion IoT devices enter the mainstream market. These are daunting challenges for IT, whose budgets are only expected to grow 3.5% in 2018. In addition, they now need to securely manage direct-to- Internet traffic that is bypassing the corporate perimeter. 25