Introduction

Organisations are transforming their operations, people require the ability to work from anywhere and sustainability is fundamental to corporate strategy. Your Cloud & Infrastructure Services are the foundations to success in increasingly complex and dynamic environments. We explore how to implement the right solutions for you.

Demand on your Cloud
& Infrastructure is increasing

The IDC forecasts that by the end of 2022, over 90% of enterprises worldwide
will be relying on a mix of on-premises/dedicated private clouds, multiple
public clouds, and legacy platforms to meet their infrastructure needs*.

More data, storage, processing, flexible-working, agility, cybersecurity, applications and platforms. More of everything.

One of the biggest challenges for organisations is the pace of new technology because this drives complexity: What to buy, what are the benefits, how to deliver, the best way to consume, who can manage, how to integrate, how to rationalise? As the world of work has changed, so too have the needs of organisations, as they manage a mix of on-premises, private, multi and hybrid cloud solutions.

Sustainability has rocketed up the agenda. The data centre can be a power and carbon hungry resource, making it a priority to review in line with Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) and Corporate Responsibilty (CR) objectives.

We can guide you to the options that fit your needs; bringing agility, automation and integration; with visibility through a single platform and all combined with resilience, security and performance.

The pace of technology change is accelerating – your opportunity to enhance business performance and growth.

Here are 6 key considerations for business leaders who want to modernise their IT infrastructure
to enhance employee and customer experience, increase operational efficiency and reduce risk to the organisation.

By keeping these in mind, you can create an infrastructure strategy that meets your current needs
and accommodates business growth and transformation well into the future.

1. Engage your key stakeholders
IT infrastructure is not just a problem for IT to solve. It is important to have a clear strategy with complete alignment up, down and across your entire organisation.

2. Determine business drivers
Your key drivers will be unique to your organisation. They could be competition and market challenges, shifting customer dynamics or business growth plans.

3. Assess current systems
Are users experiencing downtime or systems running badly or slowly? Gather feedback on how easy it is for your people to remote work, access important files or carry out critical workflows.

4. Define what success looks like
Aim to measure KPIs in line with your business objectives like sales growth, revenue and productivity. Numbers like website visits and projects completed can be vanity metrics.

5. Demonstrate sustainability
Can your business clearly demonstrate that all operations have sustainability at their core? Your organisation needs to show exactly how you are reducing your corporate carbon footprint.

6. Review your business continuity processes
What processes do you have in place to prevent outages and maintain IT operations? Protection of your network and data is more than having antivirus software and firewalls, it's also having the ability to back up both an entire infrastructure, data and applications. Delivering seamless business continuity.

Demand on your Cloud & Infrastructure is increasing

Our latest research highlights how your organisations’ cloud and infrastructure underpins the employee and customer experience and how businesses need to evolve their hybrid working approach and digital maturity to navigate the challenging business landscape. Without the correct infrastructure employees aren't able to deliver a seamless customer experience.

The poll of over 3000 office workers** revealed that:

85% expect their employer to provide the tools and training
to help them adapt to new roles as technology changes and customer expectations increase
53% agree that their employer provides the right technology
and creates a culture that supports how they need to work
35% say it is difficult to feel motivated and engaged while remote working due to communication / technology problems – an increase
of 20% since 2020.

Whilst research conducted by Opinium for Ricoh, polled 6,000 workers and 1,500 decision makers found:

39% of people’s days are occupied with administrative tasks or overcoming technology issues

– meaning teams have less time to focus on projects that deliver real value to the business and customers

Poor technology can hinder people’s appetite to return to the office and undermine the value of the office as a collaborative, social space. 29% are put off because booking a desk is too hard.

Is your organisation currently investing in the right IT infrastructure?

Do you know how you will provide the training and tools to help your people adapt?

Are you currently addressing your organisation's communication / technology challenges?

Does your cloud & infrastructure have the right capacity to meet employee expectations?

What you’ll learn in this guide:

How to optimise connectivity for your hybrid workers
How your IT infrastructure can enhance sustainability
What is a modern data storage approach?
What makes a business continuity strategy?

Sources:

* Oracle Article
** Ricoh Research