Steering with resilience through an economic storm

Posted in ITweb

“At the moment, global uncertainty is high and the short-term economic outlook is tough. This increases the pressure on business leaders and company owners to make the right decisions, because the two extremes of panicked action or ‘analysis paralysis’ won’t necessarily have a good outcome,” explains Morne Laubscher, Chief Technology Officer of Logicalis SA.

“At Logicalis, we constantly assess and analyse the factors that will affect the future of the workplace and where the world is heading in terms of technology. It’s important to be able to identify the key factors that will affect IT projects and build scenarios that will take them into account,” Laubscher emphasises.

Logicalis recently published a white paper on the five main factors affecting IT in 2023, to help guide decision-makers globally.

Negative economic growth

The first factor is negative economic growth. This puts even more pressure on IT budgets and projects, making it more important to show short-term resilience when embarking on a project.

IT talent shortages

The second factor is the global shortage of IT talent. “This is why many organisations are outsourcing their IT services. Partnering with a managed service provider like Logicalis ensures your organisation will have the skills to manage complex systems, as well as a wealth of experience that your customers can benefit from,” Laubscher says.

Rising energy costs

The third factor is energy costs, which have risen globally, and in South Africa there is the added challenge of load-shedding. To meet this challenge, Logicalis has launched a digital energy business to help customers with their energy needs in an environmentally friendly way.

Environmental concerns & carbon footprint

The fourth factor is environmental concerns. Organisations worldwide are looking to reduce their carbon footprint and also protect their IT assets from disruptive events like freak weather incidents, which are becoming more and more common. Moving to the cloud offers a big advantage here.

“Cloud-native architecture and true modernisation of systems are critical to unlock the value of cloud,” Laubscher says. “Logicalis is an integrator with a specialised team and highly specialised capabilities, allowing you to manage your tools, consumption and costs in the way that bests suits your needs. It’s essential to manage cloud costs proactively, but it requires a lot of expertise to do so in an effective way. Partnering with the right service provider gives you the tools to manage your costs as a service.”

Security concerns & threats

The fifth and final factor is global instability and security concerns. “The pandemic, wars, and economic hardship have all contributed to a more volatile environment, which drives higher levels of cybercrime. Watertight security has never been more important,” Laubscher explains.

Logicalis has a world-class security operations centre based in Sandton, South Africa, from where they can assist our South African clients with all their security needs. “When it comes to cloud, security solutions are not always easy to configure and we have found that the biggest incidence of breaches occur as a result of misconfiguration. We use a cloud controls matrix and measure our deployments against global standards to ensure everything is done correctly and the highest levels of security are correctly integrated,” Laubscher says.

To help customers understand their level of digital maturity, Logicalis has created a digital fabric scoring system. This assessment has five pillars, which include the availability of services or managed solutions, the security of the solutions, the user experience, the environmental impact, and the economics – whether the organisation is achieving maximum value from the chosen platforms. The score shows how digitally mature an organisation is and what areas are in need of focus.

“As a managed service provider, Logicalis has a trendsetting approach to digital transformation. We are passionate about helping our customers become more resilient and better able to adapt to difficult times and unforeseen challenges,” Laubscher says.

Being an integrator and managed service provider, Logicalis provides a full suite of IT services, from security operations to intelligent connectivity, cloud services, a hybrid data centre, and a digital workplace. They can also take on a full outsource contract. With local customers in many different verticals, from mining to hospitality to FMCG, their team is well qualified to guide organisations on their digital transformation journey.

Contact Logicalis to set up a digital fabric assessment for your organisation.