American technological research firm, Gartner, predicts that there will be more than 6.4 billion connected “things” in use this year. It also forecasts that the Internet of Things (IoT) will encompass 21 billion things by 2020 – almost three devices for every human being on the planet.
With all this change, new technologies that enable faster, secure machines to share and process data will be required to keep and speed up the process of innovation, especially as technological change threatens to alter our current business models.
The tools, techniques and cost structures that have traditionally surrounded a legacy IT environment no longer deliver the desired results in the business world. As organisations juggle a growing spate of technologies—mobility, clouds, big data analytics, and more, it is critical to implement systems strategically and build an underlying IT framework to fully support the business.
Today, technology leaders have a tremendous opportunity to be relentlessly proactive in identifying how technology can create new value for businesses. Organisations they lead are well connected to the technology industry with the skills and talents to make sense of an increasingly complex and ever-changing technology landscape.
The question of how to provide innovative technologies that improve organisational efficiency is one that confronts technological organisations like Microsoft, Cisco Systems, MainOne and other key players within the Nigerian industry.
Interestingly, a number of these companies are already positioned to providing innovative technologies. Take for instance a company like Cisco whose innovations come with customisation; offering tailor-made products to big cloud providers with improved software.
In recognition of the sophisticated artificial technology tools that the public cloud vendors now offer as part of their technology kit, Cisco has unveiled ‘intent-based’ artificial technology networking solutions, built on automation and machine learning. By building a more intuitive network, Cisco has created an intelligent platform with unmatched security for today and for the future that drives businesses and creates new opportunities for organisations.
Another technological innovation that has negative outcomes on businesses is Shadow IT. Shadow IT is a term often used to describe information-technology systems and solutions built and used inside organisations without explicit organisational approval. It is also used, along with the term “Stealth IT”, to describe solutions specified and deployed by departments other than the IT department. For years, CIOs have known that business groups were circumventing the IT department to access public cloud services they felt they needed to do their jobs. Only recently have CIOs begun to realise the full extent of the cloud sprawl across their organisations and the pitfalls for their business. To help CIOs manage their shadow IT issues, Cisco launched Cloud Consumption as a Service—a new software-as-a-service product that discovers and monitors public cloud services an organisation is using.
Recent analysis by Cisco reveals the extent of the shadow IT challenge. The average large enterprise now uses 1,220 individual public cloud services. That is up to 25 times more than estimated by IT. The average number of public cloud services has grown 112 percent over the past year, and 67 percent over the past six months. Even worse, there are significant business risks associated with uncontrolled adoption of public cloud services. These range from regulatory compliance and data protection, to business continuity, cost and service performance.
According to Olakunle Oloruntimehin, Country General Manager, Cisco, the primary function of Cisco’s cloud consumption service was to discover and continually monitor public cloud use across an organisation. When combined with detailed analytics and benchmarking, this insight helps businesses reduce security risks and better understand and manage cost. This helps IT teams to partner more effectively with business groups and make informed decision about the right cloud services for the business.
Innovation and new business models can be successfully enabled through connecting specific products and solutions. A robust network foundation is essential for building higher level infrastructure services. This foundation includes intelligent network capabilities at the different network locations including branch offices, campus and home and partner environments. A converged network infrastructure can result in major savings when collaboration is enabled along with the right productivity solutions.
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