This past year, we saw an accelerated sophistication of high-profile security threats, a proliferation of new vendors, an increasing shortage of IT skills, and a pace of innovation in the Cloud that is exceeding many organizations’ abilities to keep up.
What’s in store for 2018? In a nutshell, we believe companies of all sizes will feel an urgent need to overhaul their organizations’ cultures, processes, and technologies to keep pace. In no particular order, here are seven areas that we see as fundamental discussions in the coming year, each of which is necessary to address before companies can move on to the next, shiny new areas like IoT and AI.
Cloud Governance & Security
We have found that far too many companies are moving to the cloud without paying due diligence to cloud security, under the assumption that their provider owns the issue. Organizations need to take control of their own fates and assess their current security postures so they can implement the right governance policies and close critical gaps. PTP’s SecOps services help ensure your infrastructure meets rigorous standards while enabling secure innovation.
End User Experience
At the end of the day, if the end user can’t effectively use the cloud applications, the initiative fails. Tools that give IT visibility into network and application performance will be critical for baseline measurement and continuous improvement.
Out-Tasking
Where value exists, especially in cloud management and security, organizations should consider outsourcing. Partnering with an experienced IT provider for life sciences companies or other industries can help close skills gaps, reduce costs, and bring discipline to critical operations—freeing internal teams to focus on strategic work.
Network & SD-WAN
With more IaaS and SaaS applications moving into play, networks need to evolve. SD-WAN remains a central strategy for managing bandwidth, complexity, and cloud access. For life sciences and biotech organizations, SD-WAN can be key to ensuring performance and reliability as workloads grow more distributed.
Cloud Cost Containment
Despite the efficiency promises of cloud, the reality is that many businesses face unexpected bills and usage spikes. Cloud billing is complex. Without the right tools and cost optimization strategies, spending can quickly spiral. PTP’s FinOps services are designed to help reduce waste and align cloud usage with budget targets.
IT Staff Training & Augmentation
As cloud and security landscapes evolve, retraining internal IT staff is no longer optional. A blended approach—bringing in external experts who work side-by-side with internal teams—can be a powerful way to deliver project results and knowledge transfer simultaneously.
Carrier Bandwidth & Services
Carrier decisions may seem like a commodity, but getting them right is mission-critical for cloud adoption. Choosing the wrong partner can result in degraded application performance or bottlenecks in a highly collaborative environment. A network services review is often the first step in preparing for a full cloud migration.
All of these foundational discussions must come before AI, IoT, or any other hot topic reaches production. Organizations—especially those in regulated industries like life sciences—must put strategy and structure in place now, or risk being overwhelmed later.
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