Guest post by Jason Ward, Vice-President and Managing Director of Dell Technologies in Ireland.
In recent times, we have witnessed businesses across Ireland adopt new technologies and accelerate digital transformation, all at unprecedented scale and speed. By embracing new technologies, businesses achieved the flexibility to work and operate from anywhere, ensured business continuity and, in some cases, enabled growth.
Now, as we look towards the future, one thing is for certain: we now live, work and do business in a digital-first economy.
Many businesses are now looking to capitalise on the gains of the past few months and position themselves to make the most of this digital economy. And with this transformation comes huge potential for the Irish economy. From better health outcomes and the roll-out of connected healthcare through to the emergence of digital cities and smarter manufacturing, new technologies can help to bring innovation to life for the benefit of our businesses and the communities in which we live.
Data Barrier
However, from speaking with business leaders, it’s clear they are facing a number of challenges when it comes to maintaining the pace of digital adoption. Foremost among these is growing amounts of data.
As the pace of digital transformation accelerates, firms are generating, demanding and collecting more data than ever before, something which, paradoxically, has the potential to become businesses’ greatest obstacle to transformation while also being their number one asset.
From our own research, Dell Technologies has uncovered that data overload has emerged as one of the top three barriers to digital transformation, with data silos a common concern among Irish businesses. With businesses struggling to reconcile this ‘data paradox’, it’s crucial they find ways to turn their data burden into a data advantage.
Meanwhile, businesses leaders also admit to struggling with the need for upfront costs when purchasing new technology to achieve their transformation goals. A lack of in-house skills or limited IT staffing resources are also emerging as obstacles to transformation.
From looking at these obstacles, it’s clear that businesses need to find a new way of embracing and adopting technology in order to overcome some of the key challenges and meet the evolving needs of their business.
As-a-Service
That is why more and more organisations across Ireland are starting to turn to technology as-a-Service.
Similar to a subscription service, but for technology, with as-a-Service leaders can scale their technology needs as and when required, making it easier for them to harness the power of data, while also gaining better control of their storage needs and accompanying costs.
No longer an upfront cost, adopting technology as-a-Service offers transparent pricing with all the flexibility and agility businesses need to scale their success.
In today’s world, business needs are constantly changing. By harnessing the power of technology as-a-Service, businesses can ensure their technology solutions are flexible enough to meet the needs of today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, freeing up leaders to focus more on outcomes than on infrastructure and take their digital transformation to the next level.
Moreover, it seems that businesses around Ireland are taking note. According to our Global Data Paradox Study, almost half of Irish businesses are looking to move to a data-as-a-service model within the next one to three years to help combat high storage costs, outdated IT infrastructure and manual processes.
APEX
To help organisations make this shift, Dell Technologies has created APEX, its portfolio of as-a-Service offerings, which it launched in the Irish market earlier this year.
A suite of as-a-Service offerings that simplify digital transformation for our customers, with APEX businesses get the Dell Technologies innovation they know and trust – all managed for them as-a-Service and delivered however they choose to consume it, and wherever they want to deploy it: on-premises in their distributed data centers and out to edge environments or in colocation facilities adjacent to public cloud providers.
With APEX Data Storage Services and APEX Flex on Demand available in Ireland today, there has never been a better time for businesses to harness the power of technology as-a-Service to help them achieve their digital transformation goals.
Unlocking the potential of digital transformation
As we look to the weeks and months ahead, many business leaders around Ireland will be asking themselves where they go from here on their digital transformation journeys. Digital transformation is never easy and requires time, effort and commitment from all levels of an organisation. And, as more aspects of a business go digital, a continual focus on cyber resilience is essential to protect the organisation from unwanted threats.
However, by harnessing the power of as-a-Service, I’m confident that leaders across the country will be better equipped to overcome the key challenges standing in the way of digital transformation, and, in the process, unlock greater opportunities for their business and for society as a whole.
To learn more about technology as-a-Service and how it can support your business, make sure to book your spot at the Dell Technologies Forum on Tuesday, 27th September in The Convention Centre in Dublin. Featuring a special Q&A discussion with Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower and TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World, Chris Wylie, as well as sessions on breakthrough innovation, cyber resilience and how to thrive at hybrid work, this promises to be an unmissable event for business leaders looking to accelerate the pace of digital transformation in 2022 and beyond.
To register for the event please visit this webpage.
