3 MINUTE READ
DRIVERS FOR CHANGE
JULIAN GOODBARNE, OFFICE OF THE CTO
In this article, Julian Goodbarne, Head of the Chief Architects, outlines how the team of Chief Architects help customers decide on the solutions to change their infrastructure and realise their imperatives.
The Chief Architects are a function within our Office of the CTO and aligned to our key customers as trusted advisors to help advise and guide them through change. The foundation of this role is understanding the customer, this provides the point of reference from which the benefits and risks of any changes can be assessed.
The Drivers for Change
We are seeing our customers drive change across their IT infrastructure as they continue to develop their digital services and capabilities. Our customers always push to be as operationally efficient as possible, but we are seeing an increased focus on cost in the Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing and Logistics verticals because of the business pressures in those environments. We are seeing the end of life of data center infrastructure as a compelling event to move more workloads to new platforms, mostly in the public Cloud. With a rise in high-profile ransomware attacks customers are implementing solutions to secure their data from becoming infected by malware.
As a team we share with each other the change programmes that are being discussed within our customers to maximise the shared learning and to give a market view on the demand for solutions at any point in time. This helps customers understand the market adoption of solutions to assess the risk of change.
Compelling event to change to Modern Cloud Platform
We are seeing strong demand for services to move customers out of their data center's and towards a Modern Cloud Platform. This is primarily for two tangible customer imperatives. The first imperative is operational efficiency; gained from reducing the size of their data center's, including the refresh of the technology within it to improve performance and deliver the second customer imperative of a sustainable business; from the environmental benefits of reduced power and cooling. The third and more intangible benefit is the agility that moving services to the cloud can bring by being able to scale and evolve services as the organisation continues to change.
Not all customers are trying to exit their data center's, but downsizing is definitely a trend. Not surprisingly, the end of life of many data center platforms seems to be the compelling event that is driving these changes. Microsoft Windows server 2012 extended support ends in October this year, plus the converged compute platforms implemented 5+ years ago are end of support or reaching that milestone.
Our role is to advise on the target state, with relevant interim states, and produce a road map of how to get there. This way, there is a clear vision of how the customer imperatives can be achieved with the associated risks across all technology areas.
Change to Modern Device Management is delivering more for less
There is an increased focus on operational cost and changes in workforce working patterns; the fact that employees are spending a significant time working away from the office is driving a move to Modern Managed devices.
Our Service Development team has released a service associated with Modern Management of client devices, these are maturing and have recently been revised to include Windows 11, which was released over 18 months ago. There has been slow uptake of Windows 11 in the Enterprise and Public Sector markets, however we are seeing an increase in demand for our assessment and advisory services to help customers decide when they will make the change.
The Chief Architects work closely with the Service Development team, also a function within our Office of the CTO, acting as the voice of the customer to help the development of services. Our work with the team on Secure Cloud Access, as part of our Multi-Cloud Networking service is an example of this.
Through discussions with customers and knowledge of their goals it was clear that the network access solution would need to change to provide a secure way of clients connecting to Cloud Services to complement the Modern Device Management service.
The development of the Secure Cloud Access service was accelerated, and the Chief Architects are seeing strong demand for this comprehensive solution across all our customers. The solution not only includes the management of devices, but the secure access to services regardless of the location of the device or service, thus delivering a better experience for users at much lower operating costs.
The Rise of Ransomware
Cyber security is vital to protecting organisations so they can achieve a sustainable business. The Secure Cloud Access service is an example of this, another example is the demand for solutions to counter the threat of a malware attack.
According to the UK Government, “ransomware is a tier 1 national security threat, with attacks against businesses and public sector organisations increasingly common.” With the CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre saying, “it is vital organisations take immediate steps to limit their risk by following the NCSC’s advice on how to put robust defences in place to protect their networks.”
Data needs protecting wherever it is stored. Computacenter recommend, implement, and support optimal solutions for customers to reduce the risk of a malware attack and should a malware attack be successful, Computacenter also work to minimise the disruption caused. The key to this is using technology to assess and spot any anomalies in the data before a routine backup occurs. This is so organisations can spot issues early, with the insurance of a clean backup to rely on if their live infrastructure ever becomes infected.
Common Change Agenda Items across our Customers
The trends of moving to a Modern Cloud Platform, Modern Managed devices and limiting risk associated with malware are three change programmes that are readily gaining momentum. However, this will continue to evolve as customer’s needs change.
With change comes risk and uncertainty, which can create indecision and procrastination. Our Chief Architects and other experts collaborate with the customers’ teams with the key objective of understanding the business objectives and then creating a target operating model that will deliver the required outcomes. We then create a full roadmap with all the relevant projects, which enables customers to be proactive. This makes it possible to create a structured plan around the entire programme of work, plan each project and appropriately resource to ensure timely delivery, which results in successful change by realising the customer’s imperatives.