Ours is an idea economy, one where success is often dictated and even defined by an organization-wide ability to take an idea, run with it and create value out of it. However, this is easier said than done for this calls for marrying forward-thinking vision with forward-looking technological agility in order to capitalize on fleeting opportunities, or risk becoming irrelevant by failing to do so. That’s what happens when disruption becomes the new normal, as evinced by a third of the Fortune 100 companies from a decade ago being rendered irrelevant by advancing industries.
Organizations can thus choose to embrace this new digital dividend and take advantage of the latest and greatest in IT tools, or choose to stand still and risk falling off a growth trajectory they have worked so very hard to craft. Across industries, we are witnessing digital dynamos upending the established order thanks to a faster evolution of the product and services creation cycle. Amazon, Uber, WhatsApp and Airbnb are just a handful of examples of prime disruptors, and today we stand on the cusp of another upheaval as hybrid IT infrastructure emerges as a compelling advantage.
The adoption of hybrid IT infrastructure promises enormous upsides just as ignoring it can be potentially devastating. With legacy systems and processes in place, the onus then falls on each company to find its own calling and develop a strategy that is true to itself, incorporating the use of private and public cloud computing resources that dovetail with existing processes harmoniously. In implementing an open, hybrid infrastructure strategy, it is imperative that companies optimize their IT mix by combining assets to derive maximum value, with each asset allocated to specific organizational challenges.
With public computing resources becoming ever more ubiquitous and powerful, companies also risk data vulnerabilities and lax control by staying inert in the face of change. Employees often bypass internal IT processes unbeknownst to the company, putting this unsecured data potentially within reach of unscrupulous elements. This challenge requires an agile, fully up-to-date infrastructure to plug any potentially damaging leaks.
From being a driver of marginal efficiency to becoming an enabler of fundamental innovation and disruption, IT is providing technology leadership that provides an opportunity for value creation like no other. The time to wait and watch is now past us, just as the time to act is now. Tomorrow’s industry leaders will certainly be defined by it.
