Networks Europe May/June 2019 | Page 44

44 TRAINING & SKILLS The future workforce By Edward van Leent, Chairman & CEO, EPI Group of Companies www.epi-ap.com Get into action right now and make that all-important appointment with yourself! Haven’t we heard it all too often that the only constant in life is change? Nothing is closer to this truth than what’s happening in the data centre industry today. On-premise data centres are, for the most part, migrating to commercial data centres and cloud-based environments. New standards touching on various elements of the data centre facilities and operations are entering the market for both voluntary standards as well as new and/or enhanced local regulatory and industry-specific requirements. And if that’s not enough, new technologies such as IoT, edge and 5G are forcing business owners to rethink how they can add value to the business and provide them with a competitive advantage to ensure that they move faster than the competition, while at the same time managing risk. The good old school of behaviour where you could watch others taking the leap first and then see how they would succeed or fail, and only then decide to play a quick catch up, isn’t working anymore. In today’s market, businesses could be completely disintermediated by new entrants into a market who adopt new technology faster than traditional companies. Plenty of companies, including many Fortune 500 companies, have fallen victim to this by being too late to adopt new technologies or to catch a trend at the right time. Don’t assume all is good, be critical Many people fail to see the long-term impact on markets, industry and personal life of the changes happening around us which sometimes seem to be beneficial at first but, when looking at it more closely, might also have other sometimes negative impacts. Take for example the autonomous electric car, applauded by many as it’s claimed to make the world a better place. But is it all roses and sunshine? What about the fact that the car is going to be able to drive by itself? www.networkseuropemagazine.com