Irish businesses have dipped a toe in the water when it comes to digital transformation, but irrespective of how much we discuss and regale its benefits, for Irish organisations it still seems a way off yet for most. It’s a puzzle: survey after survey says Ireland is an advanced, digital society, and yet Irish businesses are not yet taking full advantage of the flexibility and scalability available to it.
For example, the EU’s latest Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) study, published earlier this year, places Ireland fifth in the bloc for a second consecutive year, trailing only Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. The report noted Ireland’s average yearly relative growth of its DESI score between 2017 and 2022 is one of the highest in the EU (approximately 8.5 per cent) and went on to say that “Ireland performs well regarding the human capital dimension, as the share of people with basic digital skills and digital content creation skills, as well as the share of ICT specialists…is above the EU average”.
It also said that, while enterprises in Ireland take advantage of some digital technologies (for example, social media, big data and cloud), other such technologies are not so widespread (for example, artificial intelligence [AI], electronic information sharing and e-invoices). The Government’s 2022 Digital Framework wants to take Ireland further, making us “a digital leader at the heart of European and global digital developments”, outlining a plan that includes development of infrastructure and a commitment to digital transformation. But how realistic is this, and within what timeframe?
While Irish business may be embracing digitalisation to some degree or other, there are signs that it is not taking full advantage of the possibilities unlocked by true digital transformation. This despite the market opportunities at home and abroad and the need to remain competitive in terms of international players. Indeed, this was demonstrated in a research report we recently commissioned in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE). The Drivers and Challenges of Ireland’s IT Landscape explores the opportunities and challenges driving enterprises, from a cross-section of industries, when it comes to digital and IT transformation.
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The survey found that almost half (45 per cent) of Irish organisations are moving towards a hybrid IT approach, whereby they plan to leverage both on-premises systems and off-premises cloud/hosted resources to support their IT infrastructure. But a significant variance still exists between enterprises headquartered in Ireland versus those elsewhere (36 per cent versus 67 per cent). This indicates that Irish enterprises have been slower to adopt hybrid IT and therefore set themselves up to embrace digital transformation, compared with their international peers.
‘Ireland has a global reputation as being a technology-first nation...yet there still remains a slower than average move towards true IT transformation’
“Ireland has a global reputation as being a technology-first nation, which is evidenced by so many international tech giants with global or EMEA headquarters here,” the survey says. “In addition to our highly educated workforce, we also develop a lot of technology on-the-ground in Ireland, yet there still remains a slower than average move towards true IT transformation.”
Irish organisations also buck the trend when it comes to storing data in owner-operated server rooms. Unlike the global shift away from this, many Irish enterprises continue to own and operate server rooms on-site. That said, our research indicates there will be a significant (63 per cent) reduction in the reliance of on-premises facilities over the next two years.
This is welcome news, not least of all from a security perspective, which unsurprisingly was among the top IT pain points (64 per cent) that Irish organisations hope to alleviate by deploying the right IT infrastructure for their business.
If we delve deeper, when asked what the biggest challenges facing their organisation, nearly one in three (28 per cent) respondents said they grapple with the management of the ever-growing amounts of data within their organisation. Over a third (36 per cent) reported they would like to understand how to make better use of their data. Just under a fifth of the Irish enterprises surveyed (20 per cent) want to more effectively manage evolving and diverse data regulation.
Given the role data plays in underpinning digital transformation, having the right IT infrastructure to support this is critical. Taking this one step further however, you also need the right people to maintain and manage it.
Another revelation from the report is that few organisations surveyed have the necessary resources or skills to meet future IT demands
Alarmingly, another revelation from the report is that few organisations surveyed have the necessary resources or skills to meet future IT demands, including security expertise (53 per cent), compliance and governance (38 per cent) and, finally, application transformation and redevelopment skills to support cloud migrations (28 per cent).
“Contrary to the abundance of ICT specialists that the EU DESI Index alludes to, possibly one of the biggest challenges Ireland faces in terms of digital transformation is resourcing. It’s no surprise then that many Irish companies must rely on IT partners to support them on their journeys, from cloud migration to the deployment of data management platforms, right through to hosting data in secure colocation and data centre environments.”
It comes as no shock then that the research also showed that a third (31 per cent) of Irish enterprises currently use systems integrators or managed hosting providers to manage their infrastructure. The ecosystem doesn’t end there, with almost all the companies surveyed saying they rely on multiple software and hardware vendors, consultants and cloud services providers to navigate their IT transformation journeys, with a fifth (21 per ent) stating they plan to use a data centre or colocation provider to support the deployment of their hybrid IT strategy in the short to medium term.
‘In a world where no one is bound by location...knowing that you can make sensitive data available in locations where it will be geographically relevant, secure and also easily accessed is critical to improving your organisation’s performance’
“Organisations seeking to effectively utilise a hybrid IT environment and move away from their own server rooms and the public internet, need to consider colocation an integral part of their digital transformation strategies,” the report states. “In a world where no one is bound by location and companies are undergoing international growth, knowing that you can make sensitive data available in locations where it will be geographically relevant, secure and also easily accessed by team members is critical to improving your organisation’s performance. Enterprise grade network dense co-location facilities can play a central role in supporting this.”
Ultimately, we are seeing an unstoppable force in the form of digital transformation driving an ever-growing reliance on cloud and colocation to host, power and sustain organisational evolution. Developing the right IT strategy to face this future is a challenge, but it is also essential.
“The future is bright for Ireland when it comes to embracing a digital-first approach. While there are certainly challenges, our collective strengths far outweigh any barriers,” writes Seamus Dunne, managing director at Digital Realty.
To download the ‘Drivers and Challenges or Ireland’s IT Landscape’ research in full, visit: https://www.go.interxion.com/l/48912/2022-10-04/n1rn7c