Keeping up with a rapidly changing digital world requires a proactive approach and an open mind. By simplifying infrastructures and embracing emerging technologies, organisations can prepare for future technological changes and challenges by creating a culture of agility and innovation. This helps businesses to overcome hurdles, boost efficiencies and remain competitive.
Start at the beginning – assess your tech stack
Assessing your tech stack can help to highlight inefficiencies which could become barriers to future innovation. Ageing tech, data silos and a reluctance to digitally transform create technical debt which can act as a real inhibitor of growth. By auditing and simplifying your infrastructure you can create solid foundations for growth and the agility to adapt quickly to market challenges.
Identify areas of your network which need to be updated or replaced. Is there any duplication of resources? Which applications are being underused, or misused? Are you paying to run and maintain assets which are poorly consumed? Is ageing hardware slowing you down or creating security risks?
By simplifying your tech stack you can remove bottlenecks, reduce risk and create a canvas for continuous improvement.
Ahead of the curve – embracing emerging technologies
Harnessing technologies such as cloud, AI and automation can help businesses to be ready for change through increased flexibility, scalability and speed. This enables rapid adaptation to market shifts and technological advancements. Experimentation with new tech can help to enable digital transformation, creating a culture of innovation in which businesses can thrive through improved operational processes which in turn makes them more agile and able to react to incoming changes – whether that be industry shifts, tech advancements or security threats.
Proactive security – one step ahead of threat actors
As fast as the digital landscape changes, security threats change with it, so any steps taken towards modernising your tech should include a focus on robust security measures. Outdated IT systems often lack the security features required to combat the latest security threats, making your network and your business vulnerable to cyberattacks and data breaches.
If you want to be ready for the rapidly changing world of cybercrime, then you need to be prepared to react fast to incoming threats with proactive security processes such as Zero Trust, access control, endpoint security and device management. Continuous monitoring and network scanning will help security teams identify and patch vulnerabilities before cybercriminals can exploit them, while the ‘never trust, always verify’ ethos that Zero Trust is built on reinforces network security through a three-tiered verification process, making life more difficult for cybercriminals. It’s all about pre-empting their next move and being agile and proactive enough to stay at least one step ahead.
Encouraging innovation - fostering a culture of continuous change
People are at the heart of your business. And while providing training on the latest tech is a given, fostering an environment of innovation can really help with end-user buy-in when it comes to embracing change. You want your business to be agile, you want to react fast to market demands, harness emerging tech and enable growth – and you want everyone on board with this, across the business.
By creating a culture in which people feel empowered to collaborate, experiment and grow, you will not only be supporting the individual development of your employees, but you will also be enhancing your teams’ willingness to adapt and adopt new tech. Encouraging people to stay abreast of industry trends, explore best practices and communicate knowledge will create a culture of continuous learning in which the whole team is poised and ready for the next change in the digital landscape.