Managed.IT - issue 59

6 01732 759725 Covid-19 powers cloud networking investment IT leaders in EMEA have responded to the coronavirus crisis by investing more in cloud-based and AI-powered networking technologies, claims a new report from Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. Preparing for the post- pandemic workplace claims that in order to support a hybrid workplace, in which people move seamlessly between working on campus, at home and on the road, IT leaders are shifting away from CapEx investments in network infrastructure towards solutions consumed ‘as a service’. It predicts that the average proportion of IT services consumed via subscription will grow by 41% over the next two years, from 29% of the total today to 41% in 2022. Over the same period, the proportion of organisations that consume more than 50% of their IT solutions ‘as a service’ is expected to increase by approximately 74%. Morten Illum, EMEA Vice President for Aruba, said: “The emergence of the hybrid workplace is pushing IT leaders to deliver a delicate balance between flexibility, security and affordability at the edge. To support new norms, such as social distancing and contactless experiences, office locations need to have the right technology in place to offer enterprise-level connectivity, security and support. All this must be done in an increasingly challenging financial environment, which is spurring the trend for IT decision-makers to opt for the reduced risk and cost advantages offered by a subscription model.” Half of IT decision-makers in EMEA plan to explore new subscription models for hardware/software (50%), networking (50%), managed services (51%) and financial leasing (29%). Despite short-term postponements and cancellations of networking projects since the onset of Covid-19, reported by 74% and 30% of global respondents respectively, most IT decision- makers plan to increase or maintain their networking investments: n 38% plan to increase investment in cloud-based networking solutions that allow remote network management at large scale, with 45% maintaining existing levels and 15% scaling back; n 34% plan to increase investment in analytics and assurance to troubleshoot and fine-tune the network, with 48% maintaining existing levels and 15% cutting back; and n 35% are planning to increase investment in AI-based networking technologies that automate repetitive tasks. https://www.arubanetworks. com/solutions/technology- solutions/ bulletin Too many vendors, not enough visibility Security fears (84%) and risk of non-compliance (52%) are cited as the biggest barriers to cloud adoption for the insurance and finance industries in a new report from Veritas Technologies, Veritas 2020 Data Management in a Multi- Cloud World: Finance and Insurance . Even so, cloud adoption in the sectors is growing strongly, with 48% of organisational data now stored or managed in the public cloud – a figure that is expected to rise to 78% in five years’ time. The report highlights weaknesses in organisations’ data backup capabilities, with 83% using multiple vendors/ solutions within their data protection infrastructure and just 21% able to back up all workloads equally effectively. Only 13% have a consolidated on-premise and cloud solution and only 15% have full visibility of unstructured data. www.veritas.com UK firms to ramp up IT investment UK firms are planning to increase their IT spend by an average of 13% as they prioritise digital infrastructure investment to boost productivity. In a survey of 500 IT decision-makers by Brother UK, 84% said they were focusing on boosting productivity to deliver cost savings (59%) and higher profits (54%). Legacy working practices such as excessive meetings (cited by 35%) and poor IT infrastructure (33%) are seen as the biggest barriers to efficiency. The top areas for investment are hardware, including printers and tablets (98%); collaboration software (98%); and remote working tools e.g. cloud-based technologies (96%). www.brother.co.uk Data Management in a Multi-Cloud World: Financeand InsuranceEdition HOW IT DECISION-MAKERS ARERESPONDINGTOCOVID-19 Preparing for the post-pandemic workplace The benefits of AWS for SMEs If organisations in the North-East deployed cloud technology to the same extent as London businesses, they would see a productivity boost of 2.6%, worth £1.4 billion. So says a report from Amazon on the impact of Amazon Web Services (AWS) on UK SMEs. Among the other findings by economic consultancy Public First are that AWS generates £8.7 billion in economic value for businesses across the UK; that companies which run on the cloud are nearly three times as likely to be growing at more than 5% a year than those that don’t; and that moving a company’s IT workload to the AWS cloud reduces its carbon footprint by 88%. www.awsimpactreport.publicfirst.co.uk