FEATURE
THE ONLY WAY TO
AVOID BUSINESS
DISRUPTION IS
TO DRIVE CHANGE
YOURSELF
AND EMBRACE
THE CHANGES
PLAYING OUT IN
YOUR INDUSTRY,
QUICKLY.
Stephen Green, CTO, NTT Ltd. UK&I,
explains how this issue is directly
impacting the data centre industry and
how it can be overcome.
Up until now, many companies have been
complacent when it comes to undertaking
Digital Transformation initiatives. Prior to
the pandemic, our research found many
Digital Transformation projects were
stalling due to a ‘hesitancy gap’, with over
half of enterprises admitting their projects
were always or regularly delayed as a
result of too many barriers to overcome.
There are a myriad of Digital
Transformation blockers contributing
to this ‘hesitancy gap’, including cost
constraints, reluctance to move out of
comfort zones, corporate complacency,
lack of energy and corporate culture,
among others. These factors have made
it extremely difficult to accomplish change
in a business – and often it’s the cultural
elements that lead to failed projects. The
current global health crisis, however, has
forced organisations to respond and adapt
rapidly to become digital-first. Interestingly,
over the last few months, strategic
decisions have been made quickly and as
a result, we’ve seen businesses embrace
change and new technologies.
How Digital Transformation
is driving change in the data
centre industry
From a data centre perspective, a key
step in our clients’ Digital Transformation
projects involves migrating to purposebuilt
facilities that host Software-as-a-
Service (SaaS) and cloud services. Many
organisations are leveraging this transition
to redesign and enhance their application
landscape. In doing so, they are able to
service their clients and partners through
digital interfaces which, in turn, improves
responsiveness and the client experience.
Another driver behind moving towards
purpose-built facilities is the ability to
accomplish new levels of scale and agility
which may not have been possible within
an organisation’s own facilities.
Due to the impact of the pandemic, this
conversation has been heightened. Within
these discussions, fundamentally different
approaches to Business Continuity and
resilience have come to light. Many
organisations, for instance, moved all their
employees to work from home instead of
the Disaster and Business Continuity sites
36 Issue 19
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