For IT Leaders, Transformation Demands Require Focus   

With the right focus, prioritization and infrastructure agility, IT leaders will be better prepared to respond to challenges of COVID-19 and beyond

Whether we’re talking about the meeting of world economic leaders, the NFL draft or kindergarten class lessons, everyone is scrambling to function online. The COVID-19-triggered upheaval happened within a matter of weeks and it continues to be a fluid situation that is clouded by uncertainty around what the new tomorrow will hold.

One thing is clear, though: When a virtual future is suddenly on our doorstep, it is the IT leaders among us who make it possible for network infrastructure to handle the seismic shift in our work and everyday lives. Our infrastructure first-responders run toward the digital transformation fire to support a widely distributed workforce and rapidly evolving digital processes—all while budgets are shrinking amid the economic downturn. We commend them.

Shouldering massive transformation demands is nothing new to them, it comes with the job, especially when digital economy size estimates range from 4.5% to 15.5% of global gross domestic product. Then COVID-19 hit. Immediately, IT leaders and their NetOps and InfoSec teams were forced to retool at unprecedented speeds to support a remote workforce that is at least two to three times larger than was ever planned for. And looking ahead, these same leaders and teams must develop the resilience, focus and agility to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving business environment that will last well into 2021.

Prioritizing for IT Leaders

Today, the imperative is to ensure security and continuity of operations as organizations turn inside out while redeploying network resources to maintain the highest level of customer and internal user experience. By “inside out” I am referring to the user traffic that was previously inside the firewall but is now flooding in from outside. But that is not all. Faced with uncertainty at all levels from capital markets, supply chains, government policy and consumer sentiment, organizations need the agility to respond quickly and cost-efficiently to new and unforeseen challenges and opportunities. With this in mind, let’s run through the top three priorities I recommend IT leaders pay attention to:

Optimizing Customer Experience Needs To Be a Focal Point

Organizations, including those in the financial services, health care, entertainment and retail industries, are seeing a significant increase in the number of users and frequency of use for their consumer apps. As new application containers, microservices and virtual machines are being stood up rapidly to meet sudden growth in user demand, IT and InfoSec teams risk being left behind by fast-working DevOps and applications teams. This mismatch in alignment can have serious consequences. While application capacity may ramp up, infrastructure capacity can lag behind, impacting the user experience. For the IT teams in some of our key customers, Under Armour being a good example, complete visibility into the performance and security of their digital applications is critical as this enables their networks to run fast and stay secure. This reliability and visibility are required to deliver upon customer expectations of user experience and trust.

Implementing Proper Security Means a Zero-Trust Approach

Zero Trust is a term coined by cybersecurity expert and former Forrester analyst John Kindervag. The concept suggests that companies place no trust in any asset, application, device or user whether inside or outside of their perimeters and must verify credentials and privileges before granting access. In a world where a workforce, as a result of the COVID-19 crisis or more structured changes in the business model, is shifting toward a “work anywhere, work anytime” model, moving toward a Zero Trust architecture makes sense. As is often said, Zero Trust is a journey that requires significant thought to ensure successful execution. Many organizations have delayed planning or starting this journey. But with the reimagining of the workforce being forced upon us by today’s new reality, the need to streamline and unify security infrastructure has never been as urgent as it is today.

Doing More With Existing IT Investments Can Drive Cost Savings

As businesses and organizations freeze or reprioritize IT spending and budgets in the face of a contracting and volatile economy, already lean NetOps and InfoSec teams are implicitly—and, in some cases, explicitly—asked to do more with fewer resources. In some cases, this may mean finding creative ways to extend the lives of existing security and network management tools by addressing bandwidth and compatibility limitations. Case in point: Following a significant upgrade to its network, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) found many existing security tools were unable to keep up with the new speeds and volume of network traffic. However, HHS found ways to meter this traffic and thereby extended the useful life of these tools and postponed the expense and disruption of a tools upgrade. Other businesses that are being forced to adapt strategies quickly can learn from this.

As we manage through this time of unprecedented change, IT leaders have the unenviable responsibility of supporting the digital transformation of their business, optimizing costs and allowing the organization to run fast and stay secure. Managing a massive disruption such as users rapidly pivoting to work from home is no easy feat, not to mention navigating an uncertain future. With the right focus, prioritization and infrastructure agility, our IT heroes will be better prepared to respond to these challenges and face the new tomorrow.

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Paul Hooper

aul Hooper is a networking and high-tech industry veteran that has held key positions at Gigamon including CMO and Vice President of Marketing and Product Management before his appointment as CEO in 2012. Paul has held a broad range of leadership positions in marketing, product development, business management, and information technology within a range of organizations including Extreme Networks, myCFO, Inc., JDS Uniphase, Netscape Communications, and Sun Microsystems.

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