Overcoming the complexities of the data era with as-a-service data management

- By Colm Greene, Director of Channel Sales, Dell Technologies Ireland

Businesses across Northern Ireland are looking to reinforce resilience after a year in which the hybrid cloud has asserted itself as an absolute necessity. 

There is no doubt that new technologies have enabled organisations to be agile and flexible in the face of a fast evolving marketplace.

But the truth is we are only at the dawn of the digital era. We are setting the foundations for a faster, more complex and distributed data environment. Looking ahead, it is vital that channel partners guide businesses as they look to evolve and reinforce their digital capabilities.  

Many are now looking to the benefits afforded by an as-a-service offering. The growing shift to everything as-a-service promises the ultimate simplification and agility that will enable businesses to manage the incoming data deluge. Breaking down data complexities will be critical and cloud, storage and flexible IT infrastructure as-as-service solutions can support the data management needs of Irish business. 

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It is up to channel experts to help business leaders understand the benefits of this new way to consume technology with trusted advice, based on a deep understanding of their business needs. Timely sector knowledge will tailor these benefits and turbocharge customer’s business goals.   

Preparing for the zetabytte era 

With Gartner predicting that 75% of enterprise data will be created and processed outside the data centre or cloud by 2025, finding a means of simplifying data management is an ever pressing business need. With the boom in edge computing bringing IoT capabilities to life and paving the way for more connected 5G futures, it is the businesses that can best handle sprawling data networks that will reap the rewards in our digital age. Those that can efficiently process, recall, analyse and transfer data will not only streamline digital operations, but save on costs and precious time. As complexity grows, this will become business critical. 

The growing demand for more flexible means of embracing technology is being accelerated by the need for firms to rapidly scale up their growth as they take their first steps on the road to recovery.According to our latest Digital Adoption Survey, 8 in 10 organisations in Ireland and Northern Ireland are looking to technology to help address the greatest challenge facing their company over the coming one to three years. 

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As these businesses in Northern Ireland start to look ahead, reinforce agility and lead the way with the competitive edge, they need to re-focus on innovation – and the digital transformations that make them possible. This means businesses cannot afford to be bogged down in the day-to-day running of their data management or find themselves knee-deep in fresh and bewildering complexities. They need to not only be consistently on top of it, but ready for the next wave in the zettabyte era – and cloud, storage and flexible IT infrastructure as-as-service solutions can help. 

Setting Irish business up for success 

Using automation to reduce the time, effort and complexity across an entire organisation is the aim of the game when selecting a solution. Customers want to be able to rapidly deploy the right data management tools with less risk and effort. Selecting the right solutions should result in the speedier, fuller and more consistent meeting of a customer’s data need – this should, in turn, empower workforces and boost processes.

There are a number of as-a-service solutions that promise to simplify how Irish businesses and organisations consume data – so how do we make sure that firms realise the full benefits? Addressing the evolving needs of organisations with consistency, flexibility and transparency is important.  

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• Selecting a data storage service that provides storage when and where organisations need it is one option, but the winning solution will feature transparent pricing for ease of use and no overage fees. Providing efficiency and cost benefits to those looking to innovate better, for less.  
• Meanwhile, selecting cloud services that promise the industry’s fastest hybrid cloud deployment will help keep customers up to speed with demand for services and the pace of innovation.  For optimal outcomes hybrid and private cloud offerings will bring integrated compute, storage, networking and virtualization resources for traditional and cloud-native applications.  
• Custom as-a-service solutions will bring that all important flexibility on consumption options and work across the industry’s broadest technology portfolio. For many, a pay-per-use experience, metered in a variety of ways, across all infrastructure will be a crucial selling point.  
• Finally, to really boost simplicity and ensure customers are in the driving seat – while letting as-a-service solutions do the leg-work – they need solutions that give them the full view from the cockpit. This was they can easily scale services, understand billing options and offers and additional services that may support their operations. 

Turbocharging transformation from the Edge 

It is up to Channel experts to help Irish businesses to accelerate their investments in connected technologies, preparing them for modern networking, 5G and analytics. The next frontier is at the Edge. Now is the time to be laying the foundations for scalable, agile and simplified data management strategies that help them surf the next wave in the data era. This is palpable across the healthcare, manufacturing and smart city arenas. 

As Northern Ireland and the world look to build back better, the real building blocks are behind the scenes and they start with trusted conversations based on deep sector knowledge and technological expertise. Channel partners are at the forefront of the innovation, advocating and educating on these essential building blocks for brighter, more innovative futures.