Now is a good time for the channel to start future-proofing customer’s businesses according to Giacom CTO Steve Law,
Law said that the cloud presents numerous opportunities for business continuity during unprecedented times. Digital transformation, particularly cloud migration, is a long-term commitment and can fundamentally shift a company’s capabilities and how it operates.
“When the first national lockdown in England happened back in March, many businesses initially panicked but believed that by summer, life as we knew it would return to normal. Now, with a second national lockdown, organisations have quickly come to realise that this is not a temporary problem, which in turn means, they can no longer justify a temporary solution,” Law said.
He claims that COVID-19 has already begun to accelerate the shift towards cloud-based services, with new research revealing that 40 per cent of businesses are now accelerating their move to the cloud, with 51 per cent planning to move more applications to the cloud to prepare for future COVID-19 shutdowns.
Law said the cloud presents numerous opportunities for business continuity.
“We’ve weathered the storm this far, but if businesses haven’t yet made this change, they need to act now or face being left behind,” he said.
He said that Remote or hybrid working is going to be at the top of many businesses’ priority lists going forward, so it is critical that ITCs remain prepared and offer the right tools and services to facilitate their customers’ transition.
With the regular changing of government advice with local and national lockdowns, many physical working environments remain off-limits. Additionally, new research has revealed that two-thirds of UK workers feel uncomfortable returning to a physical workplace. This highlights the need for businesses to quickly mobilize themselves by moving their infrastructure to the cloud to continue as we head towards a ‘new normal,’ he said.
“The cloud fundamentally offers organisations a central location where they can store their resources online, meaning anyone in the organisation can access the necessary information wherever they are. For ITCs needing to go to their customer’s offices to access necessary tools and resources, that’s now out of bounds due to social distancing measures and regional/national lockdowns. For those businesses that remain with an on-premises infrastructure, this is not a helpful place to be constrained within as the options for maintenance or deploying new tools are limited. Instead, ITCs and their end-user customers need to be in the cloud for them to operate in an optimum way,” he said.
By working with the right Managed Service Provider (MSP) that can provide training, education and support around shifting to the cloud, companies can benefit from a comprehensive list of additional features within their packages to help them manage and grow a business in today’s world – one which will remain uncertain for some time yet. The role of the MSP is to make this switch as seamless as possible by taking on the planning and implementation, as well as having the expert knowledge of how cloud infrastructure can benefit the business and smooth over any possible obstacles, he said.
“Many businesses had access to Microsoft365 packages, but did not utilise Microsoft Teams across their company network before COVID-19. Now, Microsoft Teams has seen a 70 per cent increase in users due to remote working restrictions, which is clearly a tool that has been taken advantage of to drive productivity, collaboration and communication during lockdown. This is where ITCs have a vital role to play in educating their end-users on how to gain the most value and productivity from technology with the resources available,” he said.
Law said that continue with a ‘new normal,’ organisations have to adapt and implement a long-term solution, or they could seriously disadvantage themselves compared to their competitors. It’s a survival of the fittest; businesses need to be flexible, agile and able to cope with change.
“Digital transformation, particularly cloud migration, is a long-term commitment and can fundamentally shift a company’s capabilities and how it operates. Now is the time to start future-proofing your customers’ businesses,” Law said.
