Digital Transformation: A Tale of Many Technologies

"Digital business transformation" is a catchphrase that has become the latest way to hype the adoption of a broad range of technologies. To tap into that trend, solution providers need to think past individual classes of technologies. A new survey of 631 IT and security professionals conducted by Dimensional Research on behalf of Dell Software makes it clear that mobile and cloud computing technologies are at the heart of most of these transformations, with internet of things (IoT) initiatives playing an important part. The opportunity for solution providers is to weave these technologies together to create a measurable business outcome, such as increasing employee productivity or customer engagement. For many, that may mean expanding beyond their current technology comfort zones to stay relevant to customers. The biggest obstacle is IT security, which poses both a threat and an opportunity. Since IT security teams have a reputation for killing or delaying digital business initiatives, it may be tempting to try and do an end run around these teams, but the survey makes it clear that solution providers and their customers would be better served by addressing IT security issues up front.