Digital transformation – is it on your agenda?

Right now, corporate IT is under pressure from all areas to transform operations and deliver more agile solutions to meet competitive forces and to achieve key business objectives. Why? Advances in technology, digitisation, budgetary pressures, globalisation… the list goes on.

Due to these pressures, most companies are engaged in or contemplating IT transformation at either a tactical or strategic level.

The data centre, it seems, is at the heart of the shift. Partly, this has come about due to necessity. With budgets in many sectors tighter than ever, building and updating large computing facilities is an expensive, CAPEX-laden exercise that many organisations can no longer afford – and quite frankly, even if they could, it isn’t the best use of their budget.

There are many positive reasons however for making the change. Renting rack space from a colocation provider, for example, is a very cost-efficient way to make provisions for growth without overspending on building, maintaining and powering your own facility. It’s flexible, easy to scale and there’s no IT maintenance burden.

This sort of approach, coupled with greater use of cloud services can help you to enable new delivery models, be much more agile and cut your carbon footprint. It can also significantly bolster your business in terms of security, resilience and disaster recovery.

So, with all these benefits on offer, why are some organisations holding back?

Some organisations remain reticent about giving up their data centres, seemingly because they’re worried about the level of service they’ll receive from their colo or cloud provider when they make the move.

This was confirmed recently when we carried out research with IDG. The results of the survey showed that while organisations see the benefits, they are worried about making the wrong choice of provider. They’re also worried about putting some of their business-critical information in the cloud and, on top of that, they’re worried about the transition process and the level of support they’ll get throughout it.

If that sounds at all familiar, it’s well worth taking a moment to read this case study about a technology transformation project recently undertaken by a leading international engineering firm. It explains how they managed the transition, as well as touching on all the benefits you’re likely to get in more detail, including:

• The ability to flex both up and down over the lifetime of the contract in terms of power
• A similar ability to flex up and down over the lifetime in terms of space and footprint
• Short term access to additional space and power when required (in this case for a virtualisation project)
• Access to multiple cloud platforms and carriers

Crucially, it also provides insight – direct from a client – about the level of service and support you should be able to expect from your colocation partner during the transition.

Are you thinking about a technology transformation for your organisation? If so, contact us today to discuss your business objectives. We’ll be happy to explain both how you can achieve them, and what kind of support you can expect from our concierge service to help you on your journey.

To download a presentation on digital transformation and the key themes in this post, visit: “Embarking on a digital transformation journey – what you need to know.”