Digital transformation is a process, not a destination. It’s a fundamental reshaping of an organization’s culture that reorients it around the customer experience, business value and constant change. It’s not about executing a ‘digital transformation project’ and finding a new normal. The essence of digital transformation is the destruction of the static state.

This essence is a challenging concept to grasp, ironically, because while we talk about digital transformation, we do it through an industrial era filter. It’s difficult to imagine a change of state this fundamental, so it’s easier to put in a box we understand.

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Each enterprise – and perhaps even units within each enterprise – is determining the path to a proper mix of public and private cloud.
Implementing such a services-attuned architecture may be the most viable means to dynamically apportion applications and data support among and between cloud and on-premises deployments.

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Tricky charts and visually deceptive graphs often make a case for the impact IT performance has on business. The debate isn’t around the obvious; of course, IT performance metrics like website load time influence business metrics such as conversions and revenue. Rather, this presentation will explore various data analysis concepts to understand how, and how not to, assert such correlations.
In his session at 20th Cloud Expo, Leo Vasiliou, Director of Web Performance Engineering at Catchpoint Systems, will review data analysis basics, and then move into some data-to-actionable information concepts. Afterward, YOU decide whether to use your newfound knowledge for good or evil.

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The IT industry is positioned to experience major technology shifts within the next few years as a result of the rise of cloud adoption. According to Gartner, more than $1 trillion in IT spending will be affected by the shift to the cloud by 2020 – making cloud computing “one of the most disruptive forces of IT spending since the early days of the digital age.” As enterprises prepare for, or continue to run on, the cloud, it is important for them to have a strong grasp of the cloud adoption process and the requirements for ongoing management of cloud environments. Here are five major trends that will shake up the industry in 2017.

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SYS-CON Events announced today that WineSOFT will exhibit at SYS-CON’s 20th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
Based in Seoul and Irvine, WineSOFT is an innovative software house focusing on internet infrastructure solutions. The venture started as a bootstrap start-up in 2010 by focusing on making the internet faster and more powerful. WineSOFT’s knowledge is based on the expertise of TCP/IP, VPN, SSL, peer-to-peer, mobile browser, and live streaming solutions.

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In the fast-moving digital world, being able to quickly adapt to disruptive business processes and changing business needs is key to success and survival. While organisations might be able to adapt their strategy and culture, they also need their business systems to adapt to these new processes and requirements. The need for flexibility and near real-time response to changing business processes is especially essential for an organisation’s core ERP system.

Here are five reasons why ERP needs to be flexible.

Hybrid cloud configurations

Today companies should be prepared to extend their core ERP systems with a variety of cloud-based services to take advantage of best-of-breed and supplemental capabilities. They also may want to support a two-tier ERP model in which companies run more than one ERP system, often a primary one at headquarters and additional cloud ERP services at subsidiaries. Companies should have the flexibility to create efficient, seamless workflows across multiple ERP systems, add-on services, and different applications, including CRM, WMS, and PLM – regardless of whether they reside on-premises or in the cloud.

Changing business models

Companies shouldn’t have to limit the way products and services are offered because their under pinning system is inflexible. For example, with the growing demand for subscription services, insurance companies are providing insurance coverage for young drivers by the day and jet engine manufactures are sell air time instead of the engines themselves. An inflexible ERP system that can’t support dynamic business practices such as new revenue models and depreciation methods can be a serious inhibitor to positive changes. No company wants to be limited to outdated business models because of its ERP system.

Mobile ERP

The ability to perform day-to-day business functions on the go, including approving purchase requests, signing contracts, and viewing inventory levels boosts efficiency considerably. Mobile ERP applications benefit everyone from sales people to warehouse workers to CEOs who want immediate access to financial reports. Enterprises must be prepared to mobilize relevant ERP data and processes, update data based on real-time transactions and support offline use cases.

Secure ERP data

Weak ERP security can lead to a loss of assets and compromise data privacy. Securing ERP data also needs to take into account the possibility of integrating with public clouds and tools. In order for sensitive data to be protected, ERP systems need consistent secure integrations to back end and reporting systems.

IoT data tsunami

Companies wanting to leverage data from IoT systems for predictive maintenance, predictive analytics, and optimized manufacturing, could be flooded with huge volumes of data coming from sensors. ERP systems can connect the device data with business data and must be able to process, analyse and show all this data in real-time. Elasticity with the ability to scale up quickly will become essential as more and more ERP business processes are data driven.

Given ERP size and complexities, and the introduction of new technologies as part of digital transformation, there is always the need to modify and expand ERP systems. Planning ahead to include the necessary flexibility, and using solutions that are fully interoperable is the best way to be prepared for new data, security and reporting requirements that come with digital transformation.   

(c)iStock.com/mmac72

In the fast-moving digital world, being able to quickly adapt to disruptive business processes and changing business needs is key to success and survival. While organisations might be able to adapt their strategy and culture, they also need their business systems to adapt to these new processes and requirements. The need for flexibility and near real-time response to changing business processes is especially essential for an organisation’s core ERP system.

Here are five reasons why ERP needs to be flexible.

Hybrid cloud configurations

Today companies should be prepared to extend their core ERP systems with a variety of cloud-based services to take advantage of best-of-breed and supplemental capabilities. They also may want to support a two-tier ERP model in which companies run more than one ERP system, often a primary one at headquarters and additional cloud ERP services at subsidiaries. Companies should have the flexibility to create efficient, seamless workflows across multiple ERP systems, add-on services, and different applications, including CRM, WMS, and PLM – regardless of whether they reside on-premises or in the cloud.

Changing business models

Companies shouldn’t have to limit the way products and services are offered because their under pinning system is inflexible. For example, with the growing demand for subscription services, insurance companies are providing insurance coverage for young drivers by the day and jet engine manufactures are sell air time instead of the engines themselves. An inflexible ERP system that can’t support dynamic business practices such as new revenue models and depreciation methods can be a serious inhibitor to positive changes. No company wants to be limited to outdated business models because of its ERP system.

Mobile ERP

The ability to perform day-to-day business functions on the go, including approving purchase requests, signing contracts, and viewing inventory levels boosts efficiency considerably. Mobile ERP applications benefit everyone from sales people to warehouse workers to CEOs who want immediate access to financial reports. Enterprises must be prepared to mobilize relevant ERP data and processes, update data based on real-time transactions and support offline use cases.

Secure ERP data

Weak ERP security can lead to a loss of assets and compromise data privacy. Securing ERP data also needs to take into account the possibility of integrating with public clouds and tools. In order for sensitive data to be protected, ERP systems need consistent secure integrations to back end and reporting systems.

IoT data tsunami

Companies wanting to leverage data from IoT systems for predictive maintenance, predictive analytics, and optimized manufacturing, could be flooded with huge volumes of data coming from sensors. ERP systems can connect the device data with business data and must be able to process, analyse and show all this data in real-time. Elasticity with the ability to scale up quickly will become essential as more and more ERP business processes are data driven.

Given ERP size and complexities, and the introduction of new technologies as part of digital transformation, there is always the need to modify and expand ERP systems. Planning ahead to include the necessary flexibility, and using solutions that are fully interoperable is the best way to be prepared for new data, security and reporting requirements that come with digital transformation.   

Building a cross-cloud operational model can be a daunting task. Per-cloud silos are not the answer, but neither is a fully generic abstraction plane that strips out capabilities unique to a particular provider.
In his session at 20th Cloud Expo, Chris Wolf, VP & Chief Technology Officer, Global Field & Industry at VMware, will discuss how successful organizations approach cloud operations and management, with insights into where operations should be centralized and when it’s best to decentralize.

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(c)iStock.com/ymgerman

The cloud and IT skills gap has been a long-suffering gripe for many organisations; and a new research study from Robert Half Technology shows the problem is by no means resolved yet.

According to the study, which was based on interviews with more than 100 CIOs and IT executives across the UK, three quarters (74%) of CIOs and IT directors polled admitted they frequently encountered IT professionals who were not up to the task. Yet only two in five (38%) say they use standardised skills testing before making job offers.

Anyone reading this who has ever spent the occasional lunchtime browsing LinkedIn will have undoubtedly seen memes around how qualifications are not a barrier to success in the workplace. With that in mind, the number of CIOs and IT directors who see certifications as a measurement of skill is at 61%. A similar number (60%) focus on years on experience, while more than half (53%) ask for examples of previous work in their job testing.

Evidently, the gap is clear to see. “The rate of technological change combined with the digital evolution of business today is exacerbating the current IT skills shortage in the UK,” said Neil Owen, director of Robert Half Technology. “The pace of hiring to support business growth, digital transformation and IT security challenges, while using the latest software and systems to meet best practice standards is seeing IT professionals continually needing to upskill.

“To cope, many businesses are needing to reassess their hiring requirements, considering the ‘need to have’ and ‘nice to have’ skill sets alongside cultural fit,” added Owen. “Finding high-potential candidates who can be trained and mentored to company specifications will be a key strategy for surviving – and thriving – in the technology war for talent.”

Writing for this publication earlier this month, Antonella Corno argued the need for certifiable cloud skills. “With cloud skills and the certifications, IT professionals can demonstrate that they can help an IT department drive cloud deployments in a consistent and centralised manner,” she wrote. “They become more valuable to any organisations because they know how to help to bring about desired business outcomes, such as greater business agility and lower IT architecture spending.”