THE Cloud is not a fixed, one-size-fits-all solution for enterprises seeking relief from operational inefficiencies, it can however become a customized fix, tailor-suited for the business and this can be done with managed services. This, according to Harish Grama, Kyndryl’s Global Cloud Practice Leader, who also said in a media conference yesterday, that for companies to survive there is no choice but to embrace IT modernization, specific for their requirements.
Kyndryl–initially a spin-off of IBM–claims to be the world’s largest IT infrastructure provider. Unlike its’ parent’s business, it is focused on the AI and the Cloud, separating from legacy IT activities. As an independent business it is focused towards automation and hybrid infrastructure.
Grama described companies who may be “following a wrong trend” as succumbing to operational disruptions. A study recently commissioned to Forrester Consulting by Kyndryl, lists some 55 percent of organizations able to effectively scale operations and only 52 percent are able to quickly respond to disruptions. Forty-eight percent of organizations say they are able to adopt to unforeseen events, but another 48 percent said they struggle to control IT and similar costs.
“The Philippines is an important part of the ASEAN ecosystem. We have the Customer Innovation Center here because there is so much talent, the excellent communications skills, and with great work ethic,” Susan Follis, Managing Director, Kyndryl ASEAN said. She also mentioned in reference to the same Forrester study that the shortage of in-house IT skills persists.
Hiring and retaining people with the right skills for IT modernization within an organization has become a challenge and 42 percent feel that staff lack the skillsets needed either in their current operating model or as the organization develops. Follis also pointed to the fact that there is a major deployment of infrastructure in the ASEAN that requires both additional talent and managed services.
Wilson Go, Managing Director for Kyndryl Philippines, and a veteran of the local IT sector and said that in there is growth in the market for clients of their managed services.
“We have clients in the finance sector–banking, insurance, and financial services, as well as healthcare services and manufacturing,” Go explained as he also said that they handle “internal Kyndryl clients” meaning Kyndryl locations in the ASEAN and outside of the region, particularly in HR and Accounting service. He clarified that the post-pandemic business environment created more opportunities for managed services.
Discussions over the challenges of the post-pandemic business environment clarified the importance of both the hybrid and the distributed Cloud models–it became clear that a widespread adoption of the distributed Cloud in the ASEAN depends on the deployment of a robust foundation of data and even AI management.
Based on this, organizations that lack automation, wherein human errors are not caught will suffer losses. Again from the survey, over a third of organizations studies also said they are not embedding security throughout their current operating models, leaving them open to vulnerabilities that could fundamentally disrupt their business.
“By observing our customers’ historical patterns of consumption, we can provide recommendations for identifying additional cost savings through AI and machine learning,” Go concluded.
