By Mark Pandy, Managed Services Business Unit Head, Fujitsu Philippines, Inc.
Makati City, September 26, 2019— With the rise of disruptive digital technologies, businesses are constantly finding ways to thrive in the ever-changing digital world. As we are now on the cusp of these momentous changes, organizations are now seeing that the cloud transforms into a dominant enterprise environment.
The cloud is now fully ready for mission-critical and, the old-style tech used to power their systems and apps are now being referred to as legacy systems, which can still be useful for organizations with processes that have been tailor-made to become critical and fundamental for the business performance. Global organizations, and even local players, are also seeing the endpoint of their roadmaps and support for old propriety system. They are also starting to develop a serious plan to move major applications into the cloud at an unprecedented scale, especially that these platforms are now available for various workload and application.
The rise of cloud natives
Cloud-native computing takes advantage of many modern techniques to optimize resources for overall agility and maintenance of applications. It would be an efficient mainstream process for creating and deploying applications in the cloud by placing them in handy containers for easier management. This process enables the business models of start-up or leading-edge enterprise to deliver extreme scalability.
Companies that are currently not in the cloud should migrate by following three different ways. The first two actions are simple enough; either go into the cloud as is or adapt existing processes as you enter the cloud, adding changes to the former design.
The third state would require a complete transformation of the current architectural process. This path means moving forward and develop another blueprint for building applications that are “born in the cloud,” which offers a competitive and practical advantage.
Understanding Hybrid IT and the poly-cloud
Businesses would, of course, leverage this migration to technology. However, the shift in terrain would bring a realization that not all clouds are equal, and that different types of clouds are suitable for different projects. For example, common public clouds are computing services made by third parties and are often freely available on the internet, while private clouds keep specific data in an organization secure and isolated from the public.
Companies, therefore, need to recognize their individual needs and choose the solution that reaps the maximum benefits. They must determine whether it is adequate to stick with either a public or private cloud, or a combination of their services.
For Fujitsu, it has seemed obvious that a hybrid IT, which is an optimal mix of public and private cloud, along with a sprinkling of on-premise IT, is the logical future of enterprise environments.
In spite of this, doubts have momentarily appeared in certain quarters. However, these doubts are disappearing due to the optimal construction of hybrid IT, as well as the growing offers of private cloud performance, regulatory compliance, security, and proximity to other services. Public cloud alone isn’t the solution.
A single organization may use two types of cloud infrastructure for separate tasks—this is called a multi or “poly-cloud.” Meanwhile, a hybrid cloud is a strategy that intermingles data with access to multiple public and private clouds’ benefits and functions.
The large overlap between this new concept changes the way each cloud in a poly-cloud supports the differentiation of business by disrupting the impact of its commercial model. We should consider that the massive consolidation of the hyper-scale platform market means that individual businesses are responsible for configuring and integrating which model would drive them to stand out.
Getting ready for AI everywhere
The migration and implementation of cloud computing services offer countless possibilities in this new technological age. The integration of Artificial Intelligence, for instance, could potentially improve existing cloud solutions.
Some forms of AI have arrived and we are badly mistaken to think that it is a technology still lying somewhere in the distant future. Advanced technological trends, such as blockchain, IoT, data analytics, and the Robotic Process Automation prove that everything will be driven by AI and, the speed of public adoption would be at least equal to former technology.
Companies are also seen as rising as everything becomes smart and enabled. Take the Robotic Process Automation as an example. AI is now boosting daily business operations by contributing impacts on simplicity and automation, all while lowering cost.
Cases of sudden outages is a no problem in an enabled AI-operated world. The system would just flip users to another hyper-scaler while their preferred cloud is down, and switch them back again on that major cloud platform once it is online, without involving another human being. These situations are the reality of our new world. We control the specifications of AI and allow them to propel us forward.
Having said all these, there are some human-centric issues that Fujitsu needs to address this year. Among these key concerns is the protection of intellectual properties in a transparent world, as well as ownership and accountability for AI.
We should shoulder some responsibility when providing customers with uninterrupted service. This is based on our “Human Centric Innovation” ethos, where we believe that AI isn’t a magical incantation to fix all business transactions. Like many disruptive technologies, it needs to be fed correct data to assist people. We should create a technology that recognizes accountability when making decisions.
Co-creation of a trusted business
As a complement to our ethos, our Fujitsu Technology and Service Vision 2019 also describes a concept called “co-creating a trusted business.”
Nowadays, businesses are faced with the complexity of a more connected and globally integrated world. This complexity is proving that many of the traditional structures and institutions we relied upon are inadequate and breaking down. And, everyone is keeping up with data that grows faster than it can ever be.
All organizations should, therefore, cultivate a culture of co-creating a trusted business. This mindset enables businesses to contribute to co-creating a more sustainable world with their customers and ecosystem partners.
To achieve it, organizations should take three steps: architect a purpose-driven organization to define what they can contribute to society, customers, and even for the future; build a human-centric organization to ensure that they can empower people to collaborate; and, drive the business with digital to turn their available data into valuable insights while maintaining and empowering its trustworthiness.
The digital world presents multiple opportunities for organizations to thrive. At Fujitsu, we await a brighter tomorrow for all businesses, especially in the Philippines, as they grasp the many advantages and benefits that the cloud has to offer.
