Lenovo and AMD have released a new InfoBrief, the “CIO Technology Playbook 2023”, aimed at offering insight into the opportunities, challenges, and considerations for CIOs in the data-driven economy. The study involved over 900 CIOs and IT decision-makers across the Asia-Pacific region.
Table of Contents
- Top level takeaways
- Digital infrastructure will significantly drive business ROI
- Hybrid and multi-cloud for will be a focus for mission-critical workloads
- As-a-Service flexible models will continue to grow
- Improved innovation from unified data management
- CIOs’ priority is enhancing customer experience
Top level takeaways
According to the report, organizations in the region are expected to generate as much as 43% of their revenue from digitally connected products, services, and customer experiences by 2027. In Australia and New Zealand, respondents cited “high inflation,” “human capital shortage,” and “high energy prices” as the top three concerns. In response to the challenges, 87% of ANZ organisations agreed that digital infrastructure was essential to achieve business goals.
“CIOs are prioritising cybersecurity to combat rising cyber threats. Meanwhile, the focus on digital transformation through AI/ML and edge computing is vital to cut costs and meet the demand for using these technologies in security, fraud/risk management, and IT operations,” said Manu Mehra, Managing Director – Australia and New Zealand, Lenovo ISG. In addition, the study found that IT decision-makers are looking to leverage technology to optimise supply chains and improve asset utilisation, agility, and resilience.
The report highlights that businesses need to implement a future-ready digital infrastructure for sustainable growth, and that comprehensive data-driven insights on key trends such as Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Hybrid/Multi-Cloud, and Data Management solutions would enable business leaders to deal with the competitive and volatile business climate. “AMD has played a critical role in the transformation process of multiple organisations over the years, and we are thrilled to be a part of this joint initiative with Lenovo,” said Peter Chambers, Managing Director, AMD Asia Pacific & Japan.
Hybrid or multi-cloud is poised to gain prominence in Asia over the next two to three years, with AP businesses continuing to run more than 50% of mission-critical workloads on traditional data centre infrastructure, systems, and platforms, and private cloud infrastructure. The report also found that As-a-Services-based consumption models have increased in popularity, with ANZ being one of the markets in the APAC region with the highest awareness.
“Consumption-based infrastructure offers flexibility and agility, helping CIOs ease financial burdens and invest more in business innovation,” the report said. Efficient data management will help meet digital business goals, the report found.
Digital infrastructure will significantly drive business ROI
Digital infrastructure can help businesses automate tasks, streamline processes, and improve productivity. 87% of ANZ organizations agree that digital infrastructure is essential to achieve business goals. With the advent of multi-clouds and rapidly expanding edge infrastructure CIOs are highly concerned about the growing IT operational complexity and increasing demand for faster response to their ever-changing and evolving business requirements. To accelerate their digital transformation (DX) and modernize legacy IT infrastructure, CIOs called out better cyber resiliency (ranked #1 by 62% of ANZ respondents) and modernizing infrastructure for micro-services-oriented architecture (ranked #2 by 44% of ANZ respondents) as the top investment priorities for 2023.
Hybrid and multi-cloud for will be a focus for mission-critical workloads
Over the years, organizations have realized that the public cloud does not always offer the best application experience & performance or reduce the cost burden of ever-increasing cloud workloads. Additionally, security concerns have urged 63% of ANZ organizations to repatriate workloads back from the public cloud to the private cloud and/or traditional data centers in the last 12 months.
Hybrid or multi-cloud is poised to gain prominence in Asia over the next 2 to 3 years. AP businesses will continue to run more than 50% of mission-critical workloads on traditional data center infrastructure, systems and platforms, and private cloud infrastructure. Hybrid or multi-cloud offers the highest levels of performance and meets data security & compliance requirements.
As-a-Service flexible models will continue to grow
Mindshare of As-a-Services-based consumption models has increased tremendously, with ANZ being one of the markets in APAC with the highest awareness, with 81% either having implemented or are planning to implement As-a-Service-based consumption models in the next 12 months.
Keeping up with the highly volatile, ever-changing business and economic environment, organizations in ANZ stated reducing IT operation costs as the key driver of As-a-Service Infrastructure. Consumption-based infrastructure offers flexibility and agility, helping CIOs ease financial burdens and invest more in business innovation.
Improved innovation from unified data management
Data locked in cloud silos will impede every organisation’s ability to successfully digitally transform and thereby meet digital business goals. Efficient data management requires seamless mobility of data in a highly secure manner across the different deployment locations. While there are growing application interdependencies, only 8% of AP businesses are using single data management platform, and the research has shown that the figure is significantly lower in ANZ.
Over 78% of AP businesses are currently using multiple data management platforms and systems, and in this stance, more ANZ organizations have adopted this approach.
Single unified data management platforms offer seamless data mobility across multiple clouds and integrate data across containers and at the edge. Modern single unified data management platforms for myriad data types will be the cornerstone of digitally transforming organization’s data-innovation journey. CIOs investing in the right platforms and technologies to manage the data explosion at the edge will be in strong stead to build market leadership.
CIOs’ priority is enhancing customer experience
Businesses across verticals such as manufacturing, retail, logistics, transportation, and energy are increasingly focused on delivering a superior customer experience to drive success in the digital economy.
AI to become mainstream in 2023
The application of AI to enhance customer experience is gaining more prominence among CIOs in ANZ. 86% of ANZ organizations are either using or are planning to use AI/ML applications in the next 12 months.
Organizations are expected to use AI-powered applications for a broad array of business use cases and functions across vertical industries, and ANZ CIOs are prioritizing its usage in security, fraud/risk management and IT operations.
Edge innovation will gain prominence in the DX journey
There is a strong adoption of edge in ANZ. 91% of organizations are either using or planning to use edge computing in the next 12 months for business operations.
Through edge, businesses can improve the optimal utilization of assets and enhance overall customer experience while ensuring higher uptime or improved reliability. Real-time customer analytics for omni experience; automated quality control and remediation; asset tracking, geofencing and management were among the top use cases in AP.
The survey was conducted across 12 key markets in Asia – India, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
