The Asia-Pacific Business
IT Landscape for 2016
The business IT landscape is constantly being shaped and re-shaped by forces beyond pure
technological innovation and advancement. Here in the Asia Pacific, five key developments will
come into play in 2016. They include market-driven digital transformation, the rise of smart cities,
the demand for greater business agility, the emergence of regional trade pacts and the need for
companies to grapple with the ongoing shortage of IT skills.
This white paper examines each of the developments and their effect on the IT landscape of the
Asia Pacific region.
1. Traditional enterprises will
transform into digital natives
2016 will see enterprises experiencing
major digital transformation as they
strive to improve a host of key
functions, not just in technology
but also across the entire
organization (see Figure 1).
There has been a resurgence in
confidence among chief information
officers (CIOs) that digital channels
will generate more revenues for the
business. According to the Gartner
CIO Agenda Insights report1, only
16% of CIOs expected the revenues
in their business to flow through
digital channels in 2014, but the
proportion more than doubled to
37% in 2015.
1
Digital Leadership Success
a Team Sport
Business/value
platform
Leadership
platform
Talent
platform
Delivery
platform
Technical
platform
Figure 1. Digital Transformation
http://www.gartner.com/imagesrv/cio/pdf/cio_agenda_insights2015.pdf
Mode 1
Mode 2
Traditional: emphasizing
predictability,
accuracy and
stability
Exploratory:
emphasizing
agility and
speed
Figure 2. Traditional and Insightful Modes of Operation
This trend will only accelerate as we
see digital change increasingly being
championed not only by CIOs but
also by leaders across all business
functions. For example, the push is
also coming from chief marketing
officers who are finding that traditional
ways of marketing are not as effective
any more. Chief financial officers are
also discovering that consumer and
supplier transaction models have
shifted. There is now an almost
universal understanding within
businesses that all functions need to
look at how they can transform their
own practices through digitization.
2. Smart companies will
build smart cities
Smart cities have been more than a
topic of interest in the Asia Pacific.
Many countries in the region are rolling
out Government-backed initiatives,
ranging from eGovernment and public
safety2 to intelligent transportation, in
order to tackle the challenges of rapid
urbanization. Although intentions
remain strong, few governments have
the experience or the financial means
to build and run these initiatives on
their own. Instead, they are partnering
industry innovators who have invested
deeply into the Internet of Things (IoT).
2
2
These players bring their own
intellectual property to the table and
are able to assemble ecosystems of
technology providers, integrate their
systems and deliver solutions that will
turn smart cities into a reality.
As governments open the door for
private-sector participation through
initiatives such as Digital India and
Smart Nation Singapore, the business
opportunities for companies in the
technology sector are huge. According
to Navigant Research, the annual
investment in smart city technologies
is set to quadruple between 2014 and
2023 to US$11.3 billion.
3. Cross-modal IT will unify
business silos
Many IT organizations have
understood the need to evolve into
two separate modes of operation in
order to meet the demands of the
digital enterprise (see Figure 2).
Mode 1 covers applications that
handle traditional in-house systems of
record such as customer relationship
management and ecommerce
systems. These support core business
operations and are thus built around
predictability, accuracy and availability.
https://www.hds.com/assets/pdf/hds-public-safety-whitepaper.pdf
Mode 2 comprises systems of
customer interaction and insight,
such as those handling mobility and
big data analytics. These systems
provide customers with mobile
access to business services and
enable businesses to tap on huge
datasets for predictive modeling,
allowing them to test hypotheses in
order to respond quickly to the
dynamics of the marketplace.
These systems emphasise agility
and speed.
In 2016, we will see the more
progressive organizations starting to
cross-leverage these two modes of IT.
They will introduce modern agility
features into their Mode 1 systems
and greater predictability and
manageability into Mode 2.
Companies that are successful in
creating a standardized, converged IT
infrastructure and in building data
lakes across their data assets will
realise the greatest benefits. Those
who introduce agile methodologies
and build application programming
interfaces (APIs) for their businesses
services will also have the upper hand
over their competitors and attract
more customers who are demanding
simpler digitized interactions.
4. Multicloud will enable
transregional business
only use it to minimize the risk of
widespread data loss or downtime
due to localized component failure in
the cloud computing3 environment,
but also to springboard into new
countries faster and easier. The
emerging provisions in TPP to protect
offshore data and avoid electronic
duties will create greater confidence for
businesses to harness this new mode
of building IT.
The emerging Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) promises to bring
significant benefits to economies in
the Asia Pacific (see Figure 3). To
realize the full potential of this
agreement, it will be critical for
countries in the region to plan and
invest in the next generation of
technology infrastructure to connect
their economies now.
Today, as many as 70% of
organizations are either using or
evaluating hybrid clouds across the
region. The TPP will not only lower the
barriers to consuming intercontinental
cloud services, but also make it easier
for companies to expand across the
Asia Pacific region. Companies that
adopt a multi-cloud strategy will not
Several IT providers have already
started to lay the groundwork for
this. They are expanding data center
capacity to cater to the anticipated
growth in cloud computing and
investing in cross-continental
high-speed connectivity to create
direct routes between key
economies in Southeast Asia,
Australia and the United States
of America.
5. Skills shortage will spark a
talent pursuit
The shortfall in IT skills will force
organizations to re-examine how
they address the talent deficit while
continuing to innovate and remain
competitive. The solution will lie not
just in churning out more IT graduates
with skills that are in demand, such
as DevOps and data science;
organizations will also need to find
ways to appeal to young talents by
providing a flexible working environment
while investing in their existing
employees to bridge the skills gap.
The up-and-coming “Gen Z” worker is
expected to go through an average of
17 jobs in his or her lifetime. These
workers will develop a broader variety
of skills and be exposed to multiple
industries over the course of their
careers. They are driven more by their
contribution to society than the logo of
the company they work for.
Organizations will need to figure out
how to tap into the energies of the
“Gen Z” cohort, focus on continual
learning and manage the generational
shift in IT talent.
Crowdsourcing will emerge as a way
for organizations to enlist a wider pool
of talents. This will enable them to
avoid the slow ramp-up of having to
hire people to complete tasks or
projects, and allow them to tap on
potentially more creative solutions to
problems.
Managed
Commercially
Aligned
Choice
Figure 3. Expanded Options for Cloud Services From TPP
3
3
http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/cloud-computing
At the same time, those who invest in
cloud-based tools such as video
conferencing, real-time messaging and
file sync-and-share and provide
effective training for their existing
employees will see an increase in
productivity.
Adrian De Luca brings 20 years of experience in information technology to
Hitachi Data Systems. Prior to this role, he was the HDS CTO and
pre-sales director in Australia and New Zealand, responsible for directing
the technical pre-sales capability and managing the team of systems
engineers, solution architects and business development managers. Adrian
works actively with industry bodies such as the Storage Networking
Adrian De Luca
Senior Director,
Solutions and CTO,
Asia Pacific
Hitachi Data Systems
Corporate Headquarters
2845 Lafayette Street
Santa Clara, CA 95050-2639 USA
www.HDS.com community.HDS.com
Industry Association (SNIA), as well as the analysts and press. He is also a
popular keynote speaker presenting at major industry events around
Asia Pacific and has written a number of business white papers and
co-authored “Storage Virtualization for Dummies”. Adrian’s blog is at
https://community.hds.com/community/innovation-center/blog/authors/adeluca.
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© Hitachi Data Systems Corporation 2015. All rights reserved. HITACHI is a trademark or registered trademark of Hitachi, Ltd. All other trademarks, service marks, and company
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Notice: This document is for informational purposes only, and does not set forth any warranty, expressed or implied, concerning any equipment or service offered or to be offered
by Hitachi Data Systems Corporation.
BR-13068 November 2015