Gear up for a hybrid everything world with SHI this fall

Regardless of whether your organization is already partway through a return to office initiative, planning one or deciding on a remote-only or even hybrid future working model, IT and procurement leaders at SHI customers tell us they have three common priorities:  infrastructure refresh, cloud migration and cybersecurity.

Why those three focus areas?  It’s all about gearing up for a hybrid everything world.

So how does the hybrid everything world affect infrastructure, cloud and cybersecurity? Let’s look at each in turn.

Infrastructure Refresh

Infrastructure can be used as a label to cover many things, so let’s be a little more specific.  For SHI customers right now, this means investing in new faster and more reliable wi-fi technologies to support return to office and new social distancing guidelines.  It also means boosting connectivity for remote employees, whether they are working at home or out in the field and it means renewing or replacing perimeter security measures such as firewalls (more on that below).

But infrastructure can also cover end user computing and devices.  While there was a rush to equip staff to work remotely in early-to-mid 2020, in many cases this was at the expense of scheduled device refreshes.  Now, combined with the global shortage in end user devices due to the slow supply of chips, this is leading organizations to have to rethink their EUC device provisioning strategies as they consider a wider range of devices or ways to keep ageing hardware productive.

Not exactly infrastructure, but certainly related, is the need to relook at collaboration.  As organizations shift from a ‘remote by necessity’ to ‘hybrid by design’ approach to supporting workers with technology, we are seeing a lot of customer organizations take the opportunity to examine the collaboration platforms they provide to users.  We expect to see a lot of vendor and product consolidation in the coming year.

Cloud Migration

Migration and modernization are two of the most-commonly used phrases when organizations talk about the cloud. But why are they especially hot topics now?  In a word, skills.

Just as there is a global shortage in microchips, so too there is a shortage in good cloud skills, especially people who are skilled in all the major public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure and Google).  Migration now has to mean more than simply taking an on-premise system and replicating it in the cloud.  Workloads moved to the cloud have to be modernized if they are to deliver on promises of greater efficiency, flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

That’s why we are seeing a sharp increase in the number of customers coming to SHI for cloud managed services.  When you can’t build your own team of cloud specialists in-house (or perhaps simply can’t find or fund enough of them), it makes sense to tap into SHI’s almost unique ability to equally support the three major cloud providers.  And our cloud experts don’t just do the legwork, they work with customers to establish the right cloud strategy for their organization, using proven frameworks to ensure cloud migrations are quick, effective and secure.

Cybersecurity

We’ve already mentioned that perimeter security is a major concern for many SHI customers, as they look to upgrade or replace ageing technologies.  But beyond the firewall, we’re also seeing an increased demand specifically for endpoint protection and also ways to guard against a proliferation of ransomware attacks.

As with collaboration platforms, one of the common decisions facing SHI customers today is whether to adopt a platform approach to security, consolidating vendors and products to a more manageable technology stack, or to deliberately build a best-of-breed approach, accepting that there will be less integration and potentially a higher overhead, but possibly a greater overall level of protection.  It’s a question our cybersecurity efforts are helping customers address individually, as there is no one right answer.

How SHI can help your organization be Hybrid Ready

So, we have major initiatives around infrastructure and cloud, end user computing and cybersecurity. Many questions to be addressed. Where to start?

How about with SHI’s Fall Executive Forum series. Over three days in November, we’ll be looking at the burning questions around infrastructure refresh and cloud optimization, end user computing and collaboration, and cybersecurity.

On each day, you’ll get to hear from experts at SHI as well as our strategic vendor partners. Sessions will be full of practical advice and you’ll come away with clear next steps on how your organization can gear up for a hybrid everything world.

Learn more and register your place today:

November 3 – Building business resiliency and agility with hybrid infrastructure.

November 10 – Supporting your hybrid workers with effective end user computing solutions.

November 17 – Take a hybrid approach to securing your network at the core and the edge.