Organisations are looking to their data centres to provide IT services faster, improve security, lower operational costs and increase business agility. At the same time, end-users are demanding access to data and apps around the clock, wherever they are. Downtime and data loss is not tolerated and the amount of data just keeps growing. Under these conditions, the pressure on the data centre is huge, and the cost to the business of downtime or data loss immeasurable.
While digitisation takes advantage of streamlining legacy processes and more traditional ways of doing business, it's easy to forget there are people at the end of the process. "Digitisation aims to make processes more efficient and cost-effective, but one still has to factor in the human element," says Claude Schuck, regional manager for Africa, Veeam.
Businesses can't afford to not go the digitisation route, says Schuck. "Competition is rife, customers are fickle and impatient. Businesses need to constantly re-look at how they address and attract new markets. Identifying new revenue streams will help business carve a new legacy that will ensure future survival."
In order for organisations to find new ways of doing business, they need to change processes, and while many activities can be automated, there are some that still require human intervention because people still want to feel the human touch, so, for example, when they contact a call centre or click on the 'chat here' option on a Web site. And while apps can reduce the need for human intervention (ie, banking apps), they can't completely replace the personal touch. So, what's required is a workable combination of the human element and digital processes, says Schuck.
Customers are becoming increasingly demanding and tech savvy. They want the same experience from their bank or satellite television provider that they get when interacting with social media - immediate, fast interaction wherever they are, 24/7. At the same time, businesses need to do more with less and are under increasing pressure to deliver and to identify new opportunities.
Finding new and innovative ways of making things work has become the norm. Agility is non-negotiable. And all of this is making the IT market very competitive, and large organisations with big cost structures are under pressure to continue to deliver value in the customers' eyes. All businesses, regardless of size, have to ensure 24/7 availability and guaranteed data and app recoverability - it's become part and parcel of any business today. Having that as part of your business strategy is priceless.
"Today, nobody has paper-based processes, everything is digital, and not being able to access apps or data can cause the business to grind to a halt. Imagine the loss to your business if the app that allows your customers to interact with you goes down for two days," says Schuck.
Having a competitive edge or advantage is paramount in delivering a personalised, efficient product and service. It's a necessity to be able to deliver better, quicker, faster and more cost-effective in today's tough economic environment to ensure profitable survival. Digitisation provides that ability, as well as allowing businesses to plan for the future. Schuck advises businesses to seek out a pay-for-use model as opposed to a one-size-fits-all solution.
Five key must-haves for the successfully digitised business:
* High speed recovery of data and apps so your business experiences minimal downtime.
* Data loss avoidance and streamlined data recovery to protect your and your customers' information.
* Verified recoverability of every file, app or virtual server, providing peace of mind that you'll be able to return to business as usual.
* Leveraged data that uses backup and storage snapshots to create an exact copy of your production environment so that you can test changes before deploying them.
* Complete visibility via proactive monitoring and alerting of issues before operational impact.
To learn more about how to cut costs, reduce complexity, and drive availability for the always-on enterprise, click here.
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