A recent IBM Study reveals hybrid cloud capabilities grew by 850% since 2019 within enterprises in India
Ever since Covid-19 hit the world, the demand for digital skyrocketed and with that the adoption of cloud drastically jumped. For players such as IBM, it is not just the public cloud that saw growth but the combination of both public and private or the hybrid cloud model. According to IBM, increasingly, technology leaders of large organisations are not only embracing a diverse set of responsibilities, they are playing a key role in helping organisations adapt to the unknown and transform risks into opportunities.
A new IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) CIO study says that since 2019, enterprises in India have taken massive leaps in the adoption of technology platforms and services. Chief information officers (CIOs) in India reported maturity in hybrid cloud operations increased 850%, followed by process automation and intelligent workflows at 536%. Around 69% of CIOs in India reported that their teams played a vital role in driving their organisations’ pandemic response. The CIOs also identified organisational complexity and regulatory constraints as the key challenges. “Technology adoption is rapidly becoming an inextricable part of every organisation and business function,” says Viswanath Ramaswamy, vice-president, Technology, IBM Technology Sales, IBM India / South Asia. “The role of technology leaders has expanded in breadth as well as strategic influence as they continue to collaborate with C-Suite stakeholders to drive business growth,” he adds.
According to IBM, organisations continue accelerating their digital transformation with focus on achieving business objectives over the next three years. The IBM IBV CIO Study highlights that CIOs in India identified automation, 5G, AI, IoT and cybersecurity as their top technology investments in the next three years, in addition to investments in cloud. They also expect technology to have the greatest impact on customer experience (43%) followed by process automation (41%) and sustainability initiatives (38%). The study highlights that CIOs and CTOs are gradually coming closer with respect to the roles and responsibilities they carry out.
“CIO and CTO collaboration will drive greater business value. While CIOs and CTOs recognise each other as critical, they are communicating and collaborating selectively,” says Ramaswamy. The IBM IBV CTO study says that organisations in which the CTO and CIO work together and define each other as strategically critical are realising considerable financial gains at the organisational level. As per the study, organisations with high technology measures combined with a strong CTO-CIO collaboration reported 9% revenue growth and 32% improvement in operating margin over organisations where technology leaders are not as closely aligned.
With a hybrid model of working setting in, around the world, there is much to solve to facilitate the same seamlessly. In the study conducted by IBM, 80% of CIOs in India say that they have implemented remote work strategies, but only 24% expect remote workplace changes from the Covid-19 pandemic to become permanent. In contrast, a concurrent IBV study suggests nearly two in three (65%) employees surveyed globally report they would prefer to work exclusively remotely or in a hybrid model, if given the choice.
“These findings may indicate a potential blind spot for CIOs if employee preferences for flexible schedules and work
locations are not going away. In this period of ‘The Great Resignation’, the CIO’s ability to adopt effective technology applications and productive collaboration strategies for the workforce could make a significant difference in the war for talent,” says Ramaswamy.
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