3 Trends Driving IT Growth

Jon Groves

Implementing a holistic, future-focused strategy with up-to-date IT solutions and services better positions companies to meet customer demands for years to come.

Emerging technology solutions expected to drive the most immediate growth in IT revolve around three priorities:

• Security – Identify a global security solution that doesn’t “fence you in.”
• Storage – Storage solutions should really deliver from a supply chain perspective.
• Data centers – Finding flexibility to add services to your data center solutions.

3 IT Growth Priorities

Focusing on these three priority technology areas will help managed service providers meet customer needs.

• Security: Trust but verify.

Traditionally, companies have implemented a perimeter approach to security. The main idea was to keep the bad guys out and trust everyone inside. This approach is not enough anymore. While elements of perimeter security – like threat recognition, pattern analysis and surveillance detection – play a vital role in security infrastructure, they neglect to address the number one threat to security: the negligent employee who doesn’t follow security policies behind the keyboard, not the system itself.

Adopting a trust-but-verify approach to security is essential to keep up with today’s speed of business; it also allows businesses to remain more agile when compared to a traditional risk-focused approach, while protecting data and mitigating risk. And trust-but-verify also empowers the digital workplace with data-driven, managed security services that offer digital agility and flexibility, while maintaining security and data integrity.

• Storage: Ensure efficiency amid supply chain challenges.

In recent years, more companies have transitioned to cloud storage, realizing significant cost savings and convenience as well as enhanced security and scalable services. But still, many are holding onto their on-prem strategies. And while, in the end, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to storage, companies must consider what works best for their organizations – considering everything from their current hybrid or remote work models to efficiency and ease of use. With recent supply chain issues hindering on-prem hardware development, many companies are finally seeing the benefit of a software-based cloud storage solution that can deliver on all of their needs.

For storage in particular, it’s important that businesses identify forward-thinking solutions that are delivering ahead of competitors. Investing in an efficient storage solution that is ahead of the game is a crucial step towards digital transformation.

• Data center: Find flexibility.

One of the biggest opportunities for growth and digital transformation is the data center. Digital transformation is more than adopting technologies to improve products and processes – it’s a journey toward digitizing legacy or analog functions to reap the benefits of scale, automation and speed. Investing in the data center of the future – a hybrid model designed with flexibility – helps organizations stay ahead of their competition. Flexible data centers offer companies many benefits, including cost management, compliance and security, fast provisioning and agility in the face of changing business needs.

Investment in flexible, modern data center solutions sends organizations on the next chapter in their digital transformation journeys. To meet customer needs, the market is predicted to shift toward the data center as-a-service model which offers increased flexibility and agility. Leaders in digital innovation have developed solutions that enable adapting a flexible data center to improve business operations. Organizations should cater to how businesses want to consume their data center assets, keeping in mind how flexibility can contribute to digital transformation.

The digital world will continue to evolve, and companies will have to continuously invest in technology solutions that optimize business operations and help them remain competitive. A business is only as agile as its technology, so investing in forward-looking solutions is key to success in this ever-changing landscape.

Jonathan Groves is the chief executive officer for Logicalis US, an international IT solution and managed services provider. He brings more than 20 years of enterprise technology sales and engineering experience to Logicalis. You may follow him on LinkedIn or @LogicalisUS on Twitter.