Key digital trends to thrive in the post-pandemic world

Today, technology plays a critical role not only in supporting corporate operations but also as a key driver of revenue and business value.

In order to thrive in the digital era, any organisation will need a strong digital infrastructure. (Pixabay)

Digital transformation has been on the agenda of many organisations for years but the pandemic provided an unfortunate yet much-needed impetus to accelerate these efforts. It forced business leaders to rethink their digital infrastructure strategy; digital adoption tools that were previously touted as “good to have” have become “must have”.

Today, technology plays a critical role not only in supporting corporate operations but also as a key driver of revenue and business value. Organisations are increasingly acknowledging the role that tech plays in allowing business continuity during a crisis, reducing costs as part of an economic slowdown, providing business resiliency in times of recession, and operating as a digital enterprise to lead into the new normal.

As organisations shift from surviving the pandemic to winning in the post-Covid era, leveraging the following trends will be important for organisations to hold a competitive edge.

1. The digital economy is our destiny

According to IDC, the economy accelerates its digital destiny with at least 65% of Asia-Pacific GDP estimated to be digitalised by 2022, and digitalization will drive US$1.2 trillion of direct DX investments from 2020 to 2023. This can be witnessed even more prominently as worldwide travel restrictions continue for an uncertain time period. Organisations not only need to manage distributed workforces and resources, but will need to manage them efficiently and resourcefully so they can stay ahead of the competition. Further, they need to focus on 3 key areas: the ability to respond quickly to change, to win market share with speed, and to innovate through experimentation and rapid commercialization. In order to achieve all three, they will need a future-ready digital infrastructure.

2. Critical infrastructure tops CEO's agenda

In an IDC survey conducted prior to Covid-19 at the beginning of 2020, IDC found that building a digital IT infrastructure to support resilient operations and pervasive experiences was at the top of CEOs' agendas in the next five years. Given the growing need for reliable and scalable IT infrastructure, IDC predicted that by 2023, 65% of digitally transformed enterprises would be relying on key infrastructure metrics tied to optimization, resiliency, and ongoing enhancement to drive C-level decision-making. This brings into light the strategic role that digital infrastructure plays in an organisation's success, establishing a solid foundation for the organisation to adapt speedily, respond swiftly and ultimately succeed.

3. Future-proofing business with digital resiliency

Resiliency is no longer limited to diminishing operational risks and sustaining the business. Organisations have to take digital resiliency into account as a key consideration when calculating their readiness for unexpected disruptions. With digital resiliency, organisations can rapidly evolve to accommodate disruptions, utilise digital capabilities to maintain continuous business operation, and quickly adjust to take advantage of changed conditions. This brings to the forefront the requirement for digital infrastructure, to revamp end-user experience and help ensure business resiliency in a dynamic landscape.

4. Greater performance with hybrid work model

The pandemic has changed the traditional work model, which has become a necessity for businesses. In the new, digital and contactless economy characterised by social distancing measures, the hybrid model will not only be prevalent now but will also continue to dominate even beyond 2021. This is increasing the demands for digital infrastructure, which needs to be more flexible and stronger to ease efficient and effective collaboration between employees.

5. New business values with cloud ecosystems

The pandemic has made the world more connected than ever before. Even though there were lockdowns of several multitudes across geographies, the world has stayed connected. Evolving enterprises seek out collaboration opportunities and look at expanding and innovating with their partner ecosystem to innovate new business models in order to compete and lead. IDC's research indicates that by 2023, 60% of enterprises will share information and data to cloud-based ecosystems to enhance internal operations and innovation and/or for collective monetization. Employees and consumers find navigating and understanding cloud as a system tough in the initial phases. For this, a system needs to be put together for the smooth functioning of the cloud system. A trustworthy platform, where enterprise partners can gather to connect and exchange data and information directly and securely is also essential for innovation.

Securing the competitive edge with digital infrastructure

In order to thrive in the digital era, any organisation will need a strong digital infrastructure. Operating in complex and fragmented global infrastructure across public and private environments requires a way to bring together digital infrastructure that combines multiple providers, distributed geographies and hybrid multicloud architectures. Prioritising digital infrastructure enables businesses to get the competitive edge during recovery, and achieve healthy and sustainable growth. Consequently, digital infrastructure needs to become increasingly global, interconnected and agile. The pandemic has highlighted the value of an interconnected digital infrastructure, and we have witnessed leaders become increasingly acknowledge the need to transform their infrastructure. Having the right digital infrastructure is critical to thrive in the digital economy.

This article has been written by Jeremy Deutsch, President, Equinix Asia-Pacific