DIGITAL
Is it a buzz word?
No it's not. While we explore the IT services world, we find lots of new jargons, which seem to be more engaging, but most of them do not mean successful delivery of services, until unless the servicing vendor undergoes a transformation itself.
These common used words are Cloud, Agile, DevOps, Social Engineering, Crowd Sourcing and Digital. Generally speaking Digital is the most stable state of IT (infrastructure+services+processes), after Cloud. Cloud technologies are still under deployment stage and rapid evolution of portable computing (imagine a mobile phone having 4 GB RAM, Octa core processor), have made Cloud to deliver more in shorter span of time. Mobility demands ease of use, performance and access to all enterprise applications while on-the-go. These parameters define the future state of IT infra and associated services, for any enterprise.
The co-existence of mobile (starting from borderless ODCs to smart campus) and fixed workplace culture, together demand a transformation of the following,
- User profiling (based on network, location, device and type of connection)
- Internet access
- Data security (in-flight and at-rest)
- Secured application delivery
- Metering and provisioning orchestration and automation
- Legal issues
To deal with all of these, a service delivery organisation, has to undergo a transformation itself focusing on People, Processes and Technology. A test-bed for the workplace of future, is to be created and tested. Experience gained can be then used in offering the same as a service to customers.
Digital, basically encompasses most of the technologies and modern ways of delivering the services, as mentioned above. It is an amalgamation of,
- Cloud (Private, Public, Hybrid) with orchestration layer (enables IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, DaaS and other offerings with blend of connectivity and support options)
- Social Engineering (gathers user behaviour and other analytics to provide services with increased efficiency and quality)
- Crowd Sourcing (enables efficient technical help; be it for a developer or a IT service desk professional. People are engaged through social platforms to provide context based help on immediate basis. Increases collaboration and innovation)
- DevOps (technologies like CHEF, Docker, Icinga, ELK and many others are changing the way IT infrastructure, IT Infra and Apps management, Monitoring and other key services are being delivered. Most of them are open source, which is another key benefit to enterprise demanding more with spending less)
Together these different modules, enable the IT organisation of tomorrow and help enterprises to deliver the next-gen services.
Because Digital will always absorb new technologies and the way they are required to be delivered (starting from IoT, Smart campus, borderless ODCs, mobility, delivering seamless user experience across the devices), it will stay for long and will embrace evolving technologies for long.
I will elaborate more on Digital workplace in next post, but Digital Workplace alone is not a practice, as explained, an enterprise has to work diligently on all above paradigms to create a strong foundation of Digital Wave. There are another aspects which will be impacted by one or all of these technologies, people skills. The same will be elaborated and explained in respective post soon.
Please do share your thoughts, ideas and suggestions, so that we together can learn and grow.