The pervasiveness of technology in today’s business world means that modern work is largely reliant on information and communication technologies. In fact, it can be detrimental for a company not to incorporate up-to-date technology in their organization, as it can make them less equipped to compete with other companies in their sector. Because of this, the strategic implementation of digital technologies, commonly known as a digital transformation, is becoming more and more important for businesses. It is one of the key services that managed service providers London businesses rely on for their IT have been providing, and especially since the start of COVID-19. One of these businesses is TechQuarters, based in London, who are major proponents of digital transformation.
What is Digital Transformation?
A digital transformation involves a company assessing their current IT infrastructure, and see in what ways their current solutions could be improve, or replaced, with newer technology. One of the key goals with digital transformations is to implement solutions that are future-proof, meaning they will not need to be replaced in the same way as traditional IT infrastructure often needs to be. Other goals for digital transformations include creating a more agile business structure by streamlining business processes, increasing connectivity between teams and departments, and facilitating better strategic decision making.
A digital transformation must be tailored to the needs of the organization, but a typical strategy involved migrating to the cloud, adopting as-a-service solutions (SaaS, PaaS, DaaS, etc.); and an overall IT modernization effort that normally involves overhauling hardware in favor of modern devices.
Why Digital Transformation?
There are a range of benefits for businesses undergoing digital transformations. As has already been mentioned, technology is so integrated with modern business that companies must stay up-to-date. But other benefits of digital transformation includes a more agile business structure, cost reductions, better employee productivity, and compliance with data security. Additionally, digital transformation can open up opportunities for businesses to explore different business models – this might include subscription models, on-demand models, or freemium models for their customers.
What Technologies Will Encourage Digital Transformation in 2022?
As we have already described, digital transformation has a wide range of benefits, which is a great incentive for businesses. The benefits can be down to a range of different technologies. The main solutions that businesses usually adopt are Cloud computing, and modern IT equipment. TechQuarters, as an IT managed services provider, has kept a close eye on emerging technologies that would benefit businesses. Below are some of the technologies that are likely to encourage businesses to digitally transform in 2022.
Containerization
Virtualization is a key technology involved with digital transformations. But, a new technology has emerged that works very well in-tandem with, and sometimes instead of, virtualization. This new technology is called Containerization, and it solves one of the main challenges of traditional software development, which is that software developed on a specific platform, can only run on that platform – for example, if an app was developed on Windows, and the developers wanted to run it on Linux, they would have to develop in on Linux.
However, with containerization, developers can produce an application, package it up into a container, and then abstract it to remove any platform-specific components. In other words, containerization means developers can write software once, and run it on all platforms.
Virtualization does something similar to this, but requires a kernel of whatever platform the application was developed on (i.e. Windows, Linux, etc.) be included with the app. Containerization goes the opposite way, and cleans a software of any association with a specific platform, making it a much more lightweight way of getting an application to run on any platform.
Businesses can use containerization in several ways. Firstly, it can make deploying custom-built applications to their employees much easier. Secondly, it means installing applications onto a server (physical or virtual) can be done without consuming too much storage or processing power on the server; what is more, it means you can install any applications you want on the server, so long as they have been containerized.
Machine Learning & Business Intelligence
One of the side effects of digital transformation, and the adoption of technologies like the Cloud, is that a business will be producing lots and lots of data. This data might concern lots of minute details on a business’ technology performance, their software, communications with customers, and much more. But this data is both dense and comes in large arrays (a common term for it is Big Data), and it is usually difficult to process manually.
Fortunately, machine learning is becoming much more accessible to all businesses. Machine learning is the application of artificial intelligence to read, parse, and analyze large amounts of data in shorts amount of time. When we talk of data analysis in the context of businesses, it is known as business intelligence. Machine learning and business intelligence are two ways in which companies can make their business decision making much more accurate. Big data gives you incredible detail into the performance and trends of businesses, customers, and sectors, so long as you can analyze it – it can allow you to make very accurate predictions, and thus, steer your business in the right direction.
