The new style of IT businesses need to embrace centres around four main areas: data-driven organisation, hybrid infrastructure, enterprise security, and enabling workplace productivity.
This is according to Susan Blocher, HP's worldwide VP for server marketing, who spoke at the HP Reimagine IT conference in Johannesburg yesterday.
Blocher urged executives to "harness 100% of your data, regardless of source of scale, to drive superior business outcomes," and to build this analytical capacity into a hybrid infrastructure that leverages the benefits of both public and private cloud, moving seamlessly between the two.
Yet "with all this data comes governance and risk issues," she noted, warning that not only business processes but the market value of brands are impacted by security threats.
Blocher also urged executives to enhance workplace productivity by creating systems that empower employees and customers to work and use services more efficiently.
"The voice of the market will win in the end," Blocher warned, noting disruptive tech solutions such as Uber and Airbnb have captivated consumers so rapidly and irreversibly because they offered users a level of efficiency and ease-of-use that was previously unavailable to them.
What today's digital leaders have in common is the adoption of cloud, big data and analytics, Internet of things, mobile technology, and social media, Blocher continued, citing a 2015 HP report.
It is essential to think of big data, cloud and hybrid IT infrastructure, and mobility as interrelated, said Nigel Page, EMEA chief technologist and strategist at HP. These components of IT infrastructure need to interlink and complement one another, he explained.
Yet making this transition from legacy infrastructure can be tricky and complicated, Page acknowledged.
Challenges in the transformation process can include inflexible infrastructure, under- and over-provisioning, energy and space expenses, poor utilisation, unsecured assets, and compliance and regulations issues, said Riaan Ferreira, TS Consulting country manager.
A common misconception is that new versus legacy infrastructure is an either/or decision, when in fact it is possible for businesses to implement a "bimodal" infrastructure in starting this transition, said Page.
This approaching change also carries a strong human element in that it essentially means shifting IT infrastructure from being IT-focused to being business-focused, added Ferreira. HP offers infrastructure transformation workshops that are aimed at C-level executives rather than IT managers, specifically because this is a business-focused set of decisions, he concluded.
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