In today’s fast-paced and perpetually changing economy, only agile businesses survive. At present, every organization depends on technology in some way or another, and many of the most profitable companies wouldn’t exist if they didn’t have modern infrastructure that could keep up with their business demands. The cloud has enabled enterprises to implement agility into the core of their business models, allowing them to respond and adapt quickly to what the market demands.

Unfortunately, many business leaders still believe that they can continue doing things the way they’ve always been done and choose to use the systems that are familiar and comfortable. However, this way of thinking demolishes even the once top-performing brands. A great example that shows the consequences of failing to adopt an agile approach is Blockbuster. Before Blockbuster went out of business, they believed they didn’t need to change, that customers would always want to experience picking out a video at one of their retail locations. Meanwhile, Netflix’s innovative business model allowed customers to stream videos on demand and significantly lowered costs for consumers. Also, Netflix didn’t depend on retail locations to sell their goods and services to customers. Instead, Netflix implemented an agile approach and now uses the cloud for nearly all their computing and storage requirements. This way of operating enabled them to become an industry leader.

Achieve Agility with Consumption-based IT

Organizations can achieve better agility by implementing a consumption IT model that delivers the economics of the public cloud with the security and performance of on-premises IT. Consumption-based IT allows businesses to deploy technology quickly and cost-effectively. With this scalable and flexible way of consuming IT, organizations can leverage the cloud whenever they need it and only pay for what they consume. The example of Blockbuster showed that businesses need to focus on agility if they want to continue operating successfully. Thankfully, with the right cloud strategy in place, companies can get ahead of the competition, all while maximizing revenue and minimizing IT expenses.

Before beginning any transformation process, organizations need to assess current infrastructure and develop a strategy for change. Experis Technology Group’s team of IT experts can help evaluate your organization’s existing infrastructure and give you an accurate snapshot of your current environment. Experis works with many different types of organizations across many vertical industries and can help with your adoption of an agile infrastructure by exposing areas in your business that can be substantially improved and optimized for better performance at a predictable spend. To schedule an assessment, contact our team at info@experistg.com.

Additional Resources You May Like:

• Bringing the Public Cloud Experience to the On-Premises Data Center 

• Taking HPE Greenlake Outside Your Data Center

Ensure the Entire Team Understands and Advocates for Digital Transformation

Before beginning any digital transformation process, it’s crucial that IT leaders first educate their entire organization about what it means. It’s possible that some key stakeholders within the company only have a partial understanding of the value that digital change brings to the business. Once everyone within the organization has a clear understanding, then IT leaders need to make a plan tailored to fulfilling the company’s short and long-term objectives. For instance, if a business objective is to minimize costs, then IT leaders should look at technologies, such as consumption-based IT models, to achieve this goal. Also, when companies implement new technologies, it is important that they also keep in mind how they plan to train employees to use the new systems. New role requirements or transitions may be needed. By getting others within the organization to understand, support, and prepare for a change initiative, IT leaders can help create a culture of change and make others feel a part of and dedicated to the process. Organizational change is much easier when the entire team understands and advocates for it.

Replace Legacy Systems with New Technologies that Can Improve the Customer Experience

Another critical aspect of digital transformation involves replacing legacy technology. Not only are outdated systems expensive to maintain, but they also can not keep up with the demands of today’s businesses. Nowadays, customers expect a personalized experience, and by providing such an experience, organizations can increase their revenue and customer retention. One way that companies are improving the customer experience is with artificial intelligence (AI). However, to take advantage of AI, companies need the right technology platform in place, and legacy systems were not designed with AI in mind.

Successful Companies Make Change a Priority

Technology is changing at record speed, and if organizations don’t keep up with these changes, then it is more than likely they will cease to exist. IT leaders must make sure that everyone within the organization understands the importance of digital transformation. Every business today depends on technology in some way or another. This process will take significant time and effort. However, the most successful companies realize how important it is to make changes when the market signals it is time to do so.

Additional digital transformation resources you may like: 

• Funding IT Transformation: How Companies Can Get Past Legacy Lock-in

Here are some core features of cloud computing that make it essential to digital transformation: 

• Virtually infinite capacity – essentially unlimited storage and compute resources
• Rapid elasticity – resources can be automatically, seamlessly, and rapidly provisioned and de-provisioned as a user’s demand increases or decreases¹
• Virtualized resources – no need to worry about purchasing or maintaining physical resources

Cloud Deployment & Service Models

With the cloud, businesses can transform computing into a more streamlined computing environment and avoid the high costs associated with maintaining and managing a self-contained, traditional data center. Organizations can choose the cloud deployment model that best fits their requirements. There are three different types of deployment models, which include public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud. Some organizations may prefer the near-real-time elasticity of the public cloud, whereas other organizations may prefer the enhanced security metrics of a private cloud. Alternatively, some organizations may choose to combine private and cloud infrastructure as a hybrid cloud.

When it comes to cloud implementation, organizations can also choose the type of service model that best fits their organizations’ needs. The different cloud service models that organizations can choose from include infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS).

Improve Agility and Reduce Costs with a Hybrid Cloud Service Model

HPE Greenlake Hybrid Cloud delivers hybrid cloud as-a-service to help organizations optimize cost, control, and business agility². By combining the agility and economics of a public cloud with the security and performance of on-premises IT, HPE Greenlake can help organizations to accelerate digital transformation efforts.

This way of consuming IT enables organizations to save significantly on IT-related expenditures. HPE Greenlake Flex Capacity ensures that companies only pay for the IT they use. Also, businesses can avoid expensive upfront fees and instead pay a fixed monthly cost— which includes full-service support.

Today, technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, and businesses should invest in solutions that can help accelerate digital transformation and innovation. A vital component of a successful digital transformation strategy involves cloud computing. Furthermore, the implementation of a cloud strategy requires a personalized approach that should align with long-term business goals.

References:
1. Chapter 4 The Elastic Cloud. Digital Transformation: Survive and Thrive in an Era of Mass Extinction, by Thomas M. Siebel and Condoleezza Rice, RosettaBooks, 2019, pp. 51–63.
2. IT Consumption Models as a Service: Pay As You Go. HPE, www.hpe.com/us/en/services/it-consumption.html.

Here are 3 significant benefits provided by this IT model:

• • Simplified IT Operations: With a single partner for optimization, operations, and support of your business-critical solutions, you get more time and energy to focus elsewhere. You can rest assured knowing that IT operations will get delivered with the reliability, availability, and resilience that businesses require.
  • Cost Savings: A flexible pay-per-use model gives you clear cost expectations so you can align IT spending with business initiatives. Also, you only pay for what you consume—whether it’s storage, composable infrastructure, compute, networking, or cloud resources, the resources will be available to you based on your terms.
  • Scalability: Get your workloads up and running faster and ahead of time with active capacity planning. Grow based on the needs of your business. For example, with a consumption-based IT model, Greenville Health System (GHS), could better scale its IT reliably to support paperless medical records, computerized physician order entry, and better data analysis for better patient outcomes.

Interested in learning more about HPE Greenlake?

Watch the Consumption IT Webinar on our YouTube channel or contact our team at info@experistg.com.