You shouldn’t jump onto the digital transformation bandwagon because it’s trendy. You should jump onto it because it’s the right thing to do for your business.
Having said that, you should be aware of trends in digital transformation so you can evaluate them and make informed decisions about whether they’ll help your business be competitive in the future.
Digital Transformation Trends
Before getting into trends, let’s point out one thing that’s not a trend. “Cloud” is no longer a trend; it’s just a way of doing business. Because cloud lets you focus on the aspects of IT that support your business rather than spending your time doing routine IT support, it has a role in just about every company. That role will differ within different companies, though. Depending on your specific industry, opportunities, and strategy, you’ll pick a different style of cloud. Some businesses will be “cloud first”, moving much of their IT and all new development to public cloud. Many will choose to be hybrid, whether through building a true hybrid cloud or through integrating legacy non-cloud systems with services in the cloud. There’s no one “right” way to get the benefits of cloud.
Trends you should explore making part of your transformation:
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Big data really gets its power when AI and machine learning techniques are applied to the data. There are lots of toolkits now to help you get started using these methods to discover insights you’d otherwise overlook.
• Blockchain
The cryptocurrency market has crashed, but the technology that underlies digital currency has many other potential applications. Blockchain can be used to create reliable record-keeping systems to track asset ownership, along with powering smart contracts that ensure all obligations are met.
• Process automation
For almost every digital transformation, it’s not just being digital that adds value, it’s being digital and automated. Whenever you can complete your processes faster and more reliably, that adds value to your organization.
• Edge computing
We’re way beyond centralized processing now. Instead of applications and data living in the data center, they’re everywhere. That doesn’t just mean they’re in the cloud, because smart devices that generate and use data are located everywhere. It doesn’t make sense to overload the cloud and remaining backend systems processing data that are needed by these edge devices.
• Data sharing
AI and machine learning are about finding the value in your data. Sometimes you find that value when you don’t keep your data to yourself. Investigate ways to share data with your vendors, partners, and customers to find better ways of solving your business problems and discover new business opportunities.
• Security and privacy
Achieving digital transformation success requires finding the balance between your desire to use data in novel ways and individuals’ rights to privacy. Data protection needs to be a primary focus of any digital transformation effort.
All of these approaches to digital transformation can only succeed if you have a strong foundation in the fundamentals of information technology. Contact us to learn how managed services from VAST keep your workloads running smoothly and support your digital transformation efforts.
