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Dr Mehmet Yildiz

Crucial Technology Domains For Digital Transformation

2021-03-19

Leveraging the power of emerging technology and tools in digital transformation initiatives

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In a previous post, I introduced the fundamentals of establishing a digital transformation initiative. In this post, I want to touch on four crucial technology domains involved in typical transformation initiatives.

Almost all technology pieces relate to digital transformation programs; however, some technology domains establish the core infrastructure of transformative initiatives.

From my experience, the key technology enablers of enterprise modernisation and digital transformation goals include:

  • Cloud Computing,
  • Internet of Thing (IoT)
  • Big Data with AI-based and Cognitive Data Analytics
  • Mobile technologies.

An integrated view of these technologies, associated processes and tools establishes critical success factors in digital transformation endeavours. Benchmarking technological products and services can be helpful as essential enablers of digital transformation initiatives.

In addition, ·Cybersecurity, Network, IT Service Management, and Blockchain play essential roles. I plan to cover these broad domains of technology and service in another post. Let me start by introducing Cloud Computing as the most common and critical technology domain for digital transformation.

1 - Cloud Computing

Nowadays, the most widely used technology in transforming enterprises is Cloud Computing. Cloud has become mainstream in many organisations. Adoption of the Cloud was very rapid. We can use Cloud as a foundational enterprise modernisation and digital transformation tool.

The most significant attribute of the Cloud is that the cloud service model can expand or reduce computer resources based on service requirements.

For example, Cloud can provide the maximum resources when we need a large amount of computing power, storage capacity, or network bandwidth for a specific workload at a particular timeframe. Then we can release these resources after completing our specific mission for these workloads.

This elasticity and scalability of the Cloud can provide a value position for digital transformative activities.

‘Pay per use’ or ‘pay as you go’ is another essential characteristic that the Cloud services model offers. The resources can be consumed based on the usage amount. Usage could be a short, medium, or long-term basis. For example, consumers can pay based on computing power or storage amount they used.

2 - IoT (Internet of Things)

After Cloud Computing, another rapidly growing technology domain is the IoT (Internet of Things). Substantial progress has been made in many disciplines due to IoT in creating new services and products. Some of these disciplines include environmental monitoring, manufacturing, infrastructure management, energy management, agriculture, healthcare, transportation, IT, electronics, material sciences and banking.

In the market, it is noticeable that IoT technologies are emerging, and IoT solutions are growing exponentially to support digital transformation initiatives.

It is estimated that billions of devices will connect to the global IoT ecosystem in the next few years. The bottom line is that IoT is valuable for both business and the economy, which make it inevitable. From our recent experience, we can construe that IoT can substantially impact our economy and how we do trade and commerce as far as digital transformation are concerned.

Consumers and service providers have an incredible interest and focus on this fantastic technology powered by the internet. The generation of new business for companies and new job roles that we cannot name yet is imminent.

For architecting digital transformation initiatives, we must understand IoT offerings and possess a broad range of IoT knowledge and skills because IoT is one of the primary enablers of the digital transformation initiatives to create new revenue streams and more ample business opportunities.

3 - Big Data, AI, and Cognitive Analytics

In addition to IoT, Big Data, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and cognitive analytics are vital technologies and processes we need to understand. Not only understand but we also must use them for creating insights and competitive advantage for our digital transformation goals.

It is important to note that even though architecturally similar to traditional data, Big Data requires newer methods and tools to deal with data. The traditional techniques and tools are not adequate to process big data, especially for digital transformation goals.

The Big Data process refers to capturing a substantial amount of data from multiple sources, storing, analysing, searching, transferring, sharing, updating, visualising and governing vast volumes of data sets such as petabytes or even exabytes nowadays.

Cognitive analytics deal with analytics types such as descriptive, predictive, prescriptive, and diagnostic analytics mimicking human learning. Machine learning and deep learning are standard techniques used for this purpose. Cognitive analytics can be invaluable for digital transformation initiatives. We need to understand the type of analytics and when to use them for the required transformation solution construct.

For example, machine learning (ML), as a subset of artificial intelligence, is a critical technology domain for digital transformation initiatives. ML refers to computer systems learning and improving based on their learning from analysing large volumes of data sets without programming the system. Machine learning has become a vital technology and tool for digital transformation programs due to its usefulness and impact.

4 - Mobile Technologies

Mobility is a critical technology stream in the digital transformation program. Thus, the technology leaders in transformative initiatives must understand and educate their teams to effectively use mobile technologies for innovations leading to business insights and collaboration across the enterprise. The participation must include the customers and partners of the business organisations.

The Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) domain prevails in digital transformation initiatives. EMM covers essential components such as device management, application management, content management, email management, and unified endpoint management.

Mobility is associated with several architectural, design, and business considerations. Some critical points include network access, compliance, data management, workplace demographics, end-user accountability and BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) components.

Conclusion

After setting business and architectural foundations, technology executives responsible for digital transformation programs need to evaluate, purchase, architect, design and implement technology solutions. Carefully planning the crucial technology domains mentioned in this article can give a competitive advantage for the successful delivery of digital transformation initiatives.

Thank you for reading my perspectives.

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