VMware urges CIOs to overcome hurdles to digital transformation

VMware, an enterprise software provider, today hosted more than 120 C-level executives at the annual VMware CIO Forum for Southeast Asia and Korea, and showcased solutions designed to accelerate performance and drive results from digital investment during the next stage of growth.

With enterprises and governments in Southeast Asia prioritising digital transformation (DX) as a cornerstone in business growth and smart nation blueprints, DX was a key focus area at the event. In partnership with the International Data Corporation (IDC), C-level executives had the opportunity to focus on the next progression of the DX journey to better understand, the scope and impact of DX and facilitate an in-depth analysis of DX investment relative to strategic enterprise priorities.

At the event, IDC announced findings from their latest DX study in the region, titled IDC MaturityScape Benchmark: Digital Transformation in APEJ, 2018. Conducted in 2017, the study found that organisations in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) have progressed from resisting digital transformation to exploring digital transformation initiatives. However, only 1.2% of organisations in the region meet the gold standard of being “digital disruptors*.

“The Asia-Pacific region differs in technological maturity, but one thing is common – the recognition of digital transformation as a business catalyst,” said Duncan Hewett, Senior VP and GM, Asia Pacific and Japan, VMware. “In order to enable digital transformation progress in the region, it is essential for organisations to integrate their existing products and services – without silos.”

The study found that majority of the organisations (86.5%) surveyed were still in the first three phases of maturity and indicated that they are not yet able to integrate their digital products and services across the business to provide a consistent experience for the user.

“IT environments in APJ are now a mixture of legacy infrastructure and public and private clouds, and that’s what we hear from some of our largest customers. VMware is committed to working with our customers to outline the strategic measures they need to address, enabling them for success and creating new possibilities for their businesses,” said Hewett.

As companies expand their use of cloud computing in a multicloud environment, they naturally experience increased complexity and risk associated with diverse infrastructures, management tools, and processes. VMware estimates that nearly two-thirds of the industry will utilise two or more cloud service providers in addition to their on-premises data centres**.

VMware Cloud Services helps to manage the complexity and risk of multiple cloud environments and enable a unified experience from cloud to core to edge. By extending consistent operations from the data centre to the cloud, VMware offers end-to-end visibility of cloud usage, infrastructure cost, network performance, detailed application monitoring and analytics, and enhanced security across the public cloud and on-premises environments.

VMware also recently unveiled a new set of products and services, including VMware Hybrid Cloud Extension Service for Private Cloud, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering that provides application mobility and infrastructure hybridity across different vSphere versions, on-premises and in the cloud. The expanded VMware Cloud Provider Program and new VMware Cloud Services enable organisations to manage, secure, monitor and automate cloud infrastructure and applications by providing a unified approach for end-to-end visibility into cloud usage, costs, and network traffic.

"Digital transformation is no longer a question to Asia-Pacific organisations. However, despite progress and early success, many organisations are stuck in their digital transformation journeys. To make the leap forward, organisations must establish new metrics, realign organisation structures, rearchitect their technology platform and develop digital capabilities," said Daniel-Zoe Jimenez, Research director and Digital Transformation Practice Lead for IDC Asia/Pacific.

As companies move towards a multiscloud environment and deal with workplaces evolving from traditional desktops to resources and applications across multiple clouds, they face new challenges including on governance and control, workload provisioning and placement, capacity management, portability and the need to monitor performance, and cost transparency across clouds.

“In this new digital paradigm where technology is all about driving business innovation and growth, we want to set the stage and foundation right for the next 20 years. To this end, with our enhanced portfolio of cloud and infrastructure solutions, we are ready to continue supporting our customers in Asia Pacific and Japan drive digital transformation and realise the region’s digital future,” added Hewett.

The CIO Forum featured VMware customers.