Andy Brierley, UK general manager at Rackspace Technology explores the questions businesses should be asking about IT in a post-Covid world.
Since the beginning of the current crisis and lockdown, the load on IT systems has increased, and the role of IT has become more prominent.
With new ways of working, changing usage habits and unpredictable economic conditions, priorities and expectations for IT departments have also shifted – and at the same time, there has been significantly increased pressure on corporate IT departments.
The “new normal” is on everyone’s lips, yet no one can say for sure what it will look like. When it comes to IT, it’s important to start asking the right questions now about the role it will play in a post-Covid world, when business and consumer behaviour will be changed permanently.
Time to accelerate digital transformation
Although uncertainty shrouds the future of the business world, one thing is for sure, and that is that cloud plays a vital role in the new normal.
Companies’ use of cloud for their IT environments is now almost standard, but this does not mean the end for any business’s cloud migration, far from it.
The pandemic has only accelerated the need for businesses to ramp up their digitalisation journeys, and it’s clear that they are taking note, with cloud spend having reached a record high in Q1 of 2020.
Organisations across the globe continue to face numerous challenges beyond the pandemic, though amplified by it.
These vary from industry to industry, from the need to ensure continuous IT operations, to increased demand for cost governance and cost containment.
Flexibility and scalability play a major role here. That’s why so many companies are beginning to realise the value of cloud.
Especially a multi-cloud model, which offers companies many possibilities – allowing them to use the best combination of different cloud technologies for them. But choosing the right components and flexible solutions to make efficient use of a multi-cloud environment is crucial. One-size-fits-all does not work.
Being flexible in an uncertain landscape
In order for companies to be able to respond to and ultimately stay afloat in the face of the current challenges and continue on their paths to digitalisation and innovation, IT services today have to function analogously to the market. They need to be dynamic, flexible, fast, and individually adaptable.
Only in this way can technological and cultural change can be realised. Everything-as-a-Service is therefore the key to a successful IT strategy.
