Located in the Futura Tech Park at the Information Technology Corridor of Sholinganallur, the state-of-the-art facility was inaugurated by members of the leadership team including Haji Munshi, Group Chief Executive Officer, and Joe Francis, Managing Director – India. Several premier technology partners and customers of the company were also in attendance along with the Cloud Kinetics team. 

The opening of the new office signals a larger commitment to expanding the company’s presence in the subcontinent as a global delivery centre.

Explaining the significance of the move, country MD Joe Francis said, “India has emerged as a strong hub for Cloud Kinetics’ Consulting and Managed Services in the areas of Cloud, Applications and Data. The opening of the Chennai office will help us strengthen our position in the region even as we extend services to customers in Asia, Australia, the United States and beyond.” 

Cloud Kinetics is already a well-established name in the APAC region where it has won multiple awards for innovation and excellence in the field. With its growing presence in Asia, ANZ and the United States, the company serves technology needs across industries, enabling businesses transformation with the help of technology and digital overhauls. 

Recognizing the emergence of India as a power hub, Cloud Kinetics is focussing on growth in the region. This emerged as a theme for the launch centred around “Growth, Innovation, and Opportunity”, with the leadership outlining the potential for tapping the cloud and digital solutions to drive business growth and innovation.

As CEO Haji Munshi said, “This new office kicks off the next phase of our journey in the country. We will continue to follow the Cloud Kinetics ethos of working closely to help businesses thrive in the cloud, nurturing innovation with agile, scalable technology solutions.”

The company is taking a long-term view on presence in the region and ensuring it gives back as an active member of the local community. As part of Cloud Kinetics commitment to the environment, a tree planting exercise was also conducted on the day as a CSR effort. With the help of Praise Foundation, Eco Club students, and the Candles Volunteers, 51 fruit-bearing tree saplings were planted at Thiruthangal Nadar College, Chennai. Cloud Kinetics dedicated these trees to customers and partners who have been allies and have contributed to the company’s regional growth.

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For traditional banks this doubles up as an opportunity and an urgent reminder. To compete effectively with digital banks and fintechs and thrive in this evolving financial ecosystem, senior IT/business decision-makers at established banks must prioritize modernizing legacy systems and embracing the Open Banking paradigm.

Advancing customer experience with open banking

Open banking ushers in a new era of convenience and financial control. It fosters financial inclusion, more personalized services and convenience for customers. Open banking also increases the competitiveness of banks by enabling them to provide a diverse suite of financial products & services at reduced operational costs.

Some open banking use cases include:

• Instant payments and fund transfers directly from third-party applications such as PayNow in Singapore and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in India.
• Account aggregation features for customers to access and manage savings & deposit accounts, loans, credit cards and investments from a single application.

From monolith to microservices: The application modernization journey to open banking

For most banks, successful adoption of open-banking standards will mean substantial re-architecting of their current application estate and IT infrastructure, and accelerated integration with third parties to on-board new products & services from partners. This is a critical success factor in the open banking ecosystem.

To seamlessly integrate with various third parties through APIs, banks will require an enterprise-wide adoption of microservices and API-based architecture to consume data from core banking and other legacy backend systems. This will support agile delivery, provide scalability and flexibility with multi-cloud / hybrid cloud deployments.

A microservices-based application modernization approach will eventually enable banks to drive growth through new business models, collaborate with partners to quickly on-board new product offerings and enhance customer experience.

1. Building the optimal microservices-based architecture for open banking

The application modernization journey and timelines will depend on the product roadmap, technology readiness and current IT architecture of the bank.

Banks with monolithic applications, legacy core banking systems and legacy integration platforms will need to adopt a phased approach to minimize business risks and potential disruptions. A phased approach will also allow banks to on-board partners and build marketplace offerings like digital wallets, lending and insurance services for customers in an incremental manner.

The figure here below illustrates an indicative microservices-based reference architecture for a bank along with key components such as API gateway, service orchestrator and microservices-based core services.

• The first step in the application modernization journey would involve building a service orchestration layer (Figure 1, point# 2) to efficiently manage commonly used cross-cutting concerns and non-functional requirements such as security, configurations, log aggregation, distributed tracing, service discovery and circuit breaker.
• All the above services can be developed as common components designed to ensure the core business logic is separated from cross-cutting non-functional concerns.
• The service orchestration layer along with an API gateway will interface with the core banking platform and expose APIs to both internal and external parties for accelerated integration.
• In subsequent phases, banks can start decomposing their monolithic core applications using various Microservices design patterns such as Strangler and Sidecar aligned to product domains such as account services, payment services and underwriting services (Figure 1: point# 3). For example, account services would include features such as account opening, customer onboarding and account updates.

2. Microservices-based application modernization: Challenges & way forward

Transitioning from a monolith to microservices can be a complex but rewarding undertaking for banks. Often, banks are concerned about technical complexity, security challenges and change management.

The right application enablement partner will equip you with a comprehensive roadmap, from initial strategy and architecture design to seamless implementation and ongoing support, ensuring your microservices journey is smooth and efficient.

3. Modernizing banking applications with Cloud Kinetics

Cloud Kinetics helps banking & financial services customers to amplify the value of cloud with our Application Modernization approach, driving business agility & flexibility.

Our modernization competencies focus on Application Portfolio Assessment, Microservices Architecture, Serverless, API Integration, Security & Compliance combined with DevOps & Continuous Delivery Approach. Our strategic partnerships with industry leaders like AWS, Azure, GCP (hyperscalers), Kong (API gateway), CAST (portfolio assessment) enable us to deliver a seamless solution for our customers.

Customer impact story: App modernization, cloud-native design & a one-stop digital marketplace for a leading fintech

Our customer is a leading fintech company that facilitates financing through credit guarantee schemes for micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs). They felt their current platform was lacking the comprehensiveness, accessibility and user-friendly experience that MSMEs now demand in a digital-first world.

With Cloud Kinetics, the customer embarked on a transformation journey to modernize their platform and provide MSMEs with a one-stop digital marketplace, with opportunities for cross- and up-selling products and services.

Cloud Kinetics developed the digital lending platform on AWS, using microservices architecture to create a cloud-native lending platform that was secure, scalable and adaptable to evolving needs. Cloud Kinetics also built a digital marketplace for the customer that expanded beyond loans, offering MSMEs financial products like working capital solutions, insurance options, and seamless integration with credit guarantee schemes. The interface enabled the bank to offer MSMEs a more intuitive experience and better manage their financial health.

The post Unlocking Open Banking’s Potential: Microservices As The Key To App Modernization appeared first on Cloud Kinetics.

As more organizations embrace the cloud, securing cloud-native applications has become increasingly complex. Fragmented multi-vendor solutions attempt – and struggle – to shield an attack surface that’s expansive, dynamic and vulnerable. The solution to this growing challenge in cybersecurity could lie in cloud-native application protection platform or CNAPP.

CNAPP is a comprehensive solution that gives DevSecOps and DevOps teams unified automated security that oversees containers, workloads, compliance and more – the entire application lifecycle. It is being used by organizations to crank up security as well as visibility across hybrid and multi-cloud, and private and public cloud environments. But first, let’s see why there’s such a strong case for CNAPP and how it fares over traditional solutions.

Why traditional cybersecurity solutions aren’t always optimal

How did security end up being so complicated? Organizations have grown their cloud investments over time and added solutions and products in phases, organically. The accompanying security products layered over these have also been heterogeneous and operated in silos. The result? DevSecOps is fashioned sometimes from as many as 10 different tools each working in isolation!

Add to that the fact that cloud environments often involve microservices, containerization or serverless architecture. A far cry from traditional IT environments. This is why traditional intrusion detection and firewalls just don’t cut it when it comes to the distributed and dynamic cloud environments of today. These modes of security were designed to serve a fixed network perimeter like a data centre. Not the complex distributed cloud environments that are par for the course today.

The most significant driver is the need to unify risk visibility across the entire hybrid application and across the entire application life cycle. This simply cannot be achieved using separate and siloed security and legacy application testing offerings. – 2023 Gartner® Market Guide for Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms

Your cloud security & CNAPP

What is CNAPP? A cloud-native application protection platform offers a simplified security architecture to enable enterprises to reduce complexity and costs of security solutions that operate in silos. CNAPP lets a business benefit from a unified continuous security structure without any added investments by way of more manpower or investment in more tools.

The compelling case for CNAPP in cybersecurity

The global CNAPP market is set to grow at 19.9% (CAGR) between 2022 and 2027, to USD 19.3 billion, driven by a growing risk of breaches and reported incidents of cyber threats, an increasing use of cloud solutions, a manpower crunch within the IT security teams in-house, as well as the potential vulnerability posed by an increasingly WFH/remote workforce.

By 2025, 60% of enterprises will have consolidated cloud workload protection platform (CWPP) and cloud security posture management (CSPM) capabilities to a single vendor, up from 25% in 2022. 2023 Gartner® Market Guide for Cloud-Native Application Protection Platforms

CNAPP was built to protect cloud-based infrastructure and applications. The solution is agile, dynamic and scalable. Large existing cloud users like ISVs and SaaS companies have begun to see the benefits of CNAPP.

The issue of combined risk is something CNAPP is capable of dealing with. While security solutions like cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM), cloud workload protection platform (CWPP) and cloud security posture management (CSPM) do offer data on vulnerability and risk they are unable to come together in a way that – as Gartner puts it – connects the dots. CNAPP identifies the effective risk across the various layers that comprise cloud-native applications, helping prioritize risk and easing the burden on overstretched security and developer teams.

Here are some features of CNAPP that make it the smart choice for enterprises that operate in the cloud.

• Is a combined cloud security solution
• Is purpose-built for cloud-native environments
• Is integrated with the app development life cycle
• Does not add additional complexity to the application
• Supports scanning and quick response to any misconfiguration

How to choose a CNAPP solution

There is a palpable shift underway in the market, to consolidate cloud security solutions and benefit from the ease and visibility that a single CNAPP solution brings.

If you are considering CNAPP, here is a quick guide to choosing the right partner. The exercise will be most effective if those doing the selection are drawn from the various teams that will be involved with or impacted by the solution – namely, developers, development security, app security, cloud security, workload security and middleware security teams.

Make a CNAPP decision for your cybersecurity!

Finding a good partner for your CNAPP solution is critical and Cloud Kinetics has the expertise you need. Cloud Kinetics offers CNAPP in partnership with Plerion, an all-in-one Cloud Security Platform that supports workloads across AWS, Azure and GCP. If securing your entire cloud with an all-in-one cloud security platform is on your mind, we can help!

Cloud Kinetics is an award-winning, certified cloud transformation and managed services partner headquartered in Singapore and operating globally. We use cutting-edge platform-driven services to accelerate and secure our clients’ digital and business transformation journeys. Get in touch with our cloud experts for a non-obligatory discussion at contactus@cloud-kinetics.com

You can also download the CNAPP Cloud Security Handbook Here

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“The Channel Asia Innovation Awards 2023 brought the unique community together to celebrate the best of the best,” Foundry Asia editorial director Christopher Holmes said. “Representing the entire ASEAN ecosystem, more than 110 finalists make the shortlist this year from a pool of over 40 organizations, spanning partner, start-up, telco, vendor and distributor businesses.

The Cloud Innovation award recognizes the tangible value Cloud Kinetics brings to customers, enhancing customer innovation on the cloud. It is also the latest in Cloud Kinetics’ expanding portfolio of awards and competencies this year, including, recently, the AWS Rising Star Partner of the Year 2023, HashiCorp APJ Focus Partner 2023 Award, and the AWS DevOps Consulting Competency.

Cloud Kinetics wins this award for its focus on helping companies transform. With an emphasis on professional development, its workforce has seen a huge growth of certified professionals across cloud platforms. Customer success stories demonstrate the flexibility in approach and ability to meet and exceed customer expectations – IDG Channel Asia

With a growing ecosystem of cloud, applications and data partners, Cloud Kinetics offers end-to-end solutions that cater to customers’ unique needs across the different stages of their digitalization and digital transformation journey. Over 350 Fortune 100 companies, listed firms and cloud-native unicorns across industries have leveraged Cloud Kinetics’ multi-cloud, hybrid cloud, applications and data expertise to accelerate their digital transformation. 

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• Cloud Kinetics is amongst the earliest in the region to announce a Data Migration and Modernization service suite with Snowflake to be listed in AWS Marketplace
• The offering will enable organizations to build a strong modern data foundation and unlock the value of their data

Indonesia, 24 March 2023 – Cloud Kinetics, a leading cloud transformation and AWS Managed Service Provider, announced today that it has strengthened its partnership with Snowflake, the Data Cloud company, to drive data-led transformation for businesses across USA, ANZ and Asia. Leveraging Cloud Kinetics’ extensive hybrid and multi-cloud data expertise and Snowflake’s differentiated capabilities, enterprises will be able to build a strong modern data foundation, by way of a comprehensive Data Migration and Modernization service suite.

Cloud Kinetics is amongst the earliest in the APAC region to launch a joint Data Migration and Modernization offering with Snowflake on Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace, a curated digital catalog that makes it easy for customers to find, test, buy, and deploy the third-party software they want, with the simplified procurement and controls they need.

Cloud Kinetics is also well-poised to enter new markets ripe for digital disruption, consolidating its presence in United States and Australia while making inroads in Thailand and Malaysia in Asia. With the joint offering readily available in AWS Marketplace, enterprises looking for solutions to migrate legacy data sources or eliminate disparate data silos will have easy access to it.

Enabling enterprises to build a modern data foundation

Data silos stifle business growth and are a challenge for many enterprises today. With data growing at an exponential rate, enterprises facing siloed and fragmented data are not able to seamlessly access, share, or tap across organizational and geographical teams to generate actionable insights.

The joint offering will help enterprises break down data silos, move, distill and unify vital business data into a modern data foundation that unlocks analytics & insights, and allows for informed business decisions. Under this partnership, joint customers can migrate their existing on-premise or cloud-hosted databases to a Snowflake environment running on AWS and gain numerous performance benefits right away.

Combining Snowflake’s Data Cloud that requires near-zero maintenance with AWS’s highly scalable and secure infrastructure, the data-driven cloud solutions from Cloud Kinetics will enable enterprises to ingest, process and protect all their data reliably. With elastic engagement models, the joint offering also gives customers greater choice and flexibility to tailor the data migration and modernization process to meet their unique needs.

“Riding on our growth momentum in the APAC region, we are thrilled to deepen our ongoing partnership with Snowflake to better serve our customers. This marks a significant step for us to empower more businesses in the region to accelerate their digital transformation journey and keep pace with rapid data growth, capitalizing on Snowflake’s intelligent data capabilities running on AWS,” said Saleh M “Haji” Munshi, Group CEO of Cloud Kinetics. “We look forward to extending and evolving our robust data service offerings to bring high value to our customers, so they can truly thrive and innovate in the digital-first world.”

“Our customers’ businesses are growing at an exponential rate and data silos present one of the biggest challenges that may jeopardize this growth,” said Ash Willis, Vice President, Partners and Alliances APJ at Snowflake. “Snowflake’s expanded partnership with Cloud Kinetics will help enterprises in the region with their Data Migration and Modernization journey, making the adoption smoother and faster for the end customer.”

Cloud Kinetics’ Data Migration & Modernization service suite with Snowflake is now available on AWS Marketplace

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Cloud Gaming is also referred to as Gaming-on-Demand as it allows the user to play a game on any device without requiring physical hardware or a local copy of the game. As the world of gaming shifts from traditional consoles, cloud gaming is becoming attractive to gamers because it saves time and money for them by eliminating the need to purchase hardware or download/upgrade games. They also don’t need space to store games as the entire gaming experience is cloud-based.

How does cloud gaming impact the gaming experience?

Access to games: Games that were previously unavailable without specific hardware are now accessible to all gamers.

Uninterrupted Gameplay: Being platform-agnostic, the same game can be played, paused and continued from multiple devices.

Updated in-game content: Gamers have access to the latest version of the game irrespective of their device or location.

Security: User information is protected by industrial security standards, making hacking that much harder.

Industry Giants entering this lucrative segment

Internet giants like Google, Microsoft and Tencent have already entered the cloud gaming market. This clearly shows that the market is beginning to recognize the opportunity that cloud gaming presents.

• Microsoft recently announced that it will open its xCloud game streaming service to the public later this year.
• Google also unveiled its cloud gaming platform ‘Stadia’ to the world in March 2019.
• Ubisoft is partnering with Google on Stadia, building on their learnings with Project Stream via Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
• Amazon and Apple are also reportedly exploring to enter the cloud gaming market.

What’s in store?

Statista predicts that by 2021, there will be 2.73 billion gamers worldwide. Cloud computing has solved many of the problems experienced by both gamers and the game developers. With industry titans such as Google and Microsoft leading the way, it is easy to see what is in store. However, with great scale comes greater responsibility. As gaming becomes mainstream, the industry can expect more scrutiny and regulations, specifically with a focus on kids.

As the market heats up, we will also probably see some interesting acquisitions and partnerships happening. It will also be interesting to see how the subscription models will develop in the coming days.

Cloud will continue to enable the gaming market with scalable access and uninterrupted streaming of games.

Business on Cloud Series

The ‘Cloud’ in Cloud computing refers to a centralized location on the internet that stores data, making it accessible anytime, anywhere, from any connected device. It gives companies the benefit of flexibility, ease of use and automation, while saving costs. It saves time and money by boosting productivity and improving collaboration. In short, it allows you to do more with less.

The applications of the cloud technologies are many. In fact, it is already all around us and we all are using the cloud in one way or the other, every day. In our series – ‘Business on Cloud’, we are going to explore the applicability, benefits and opportunities of cloud on various industries.

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Digitizing and migrating an organization’s IT assets onto the cloud must be planned well. Data quantity, system complexity and available IT expertise are all critical elements of the process. Undermining the importance of any part of this process can cause extended downtime and affect future use of the cloud.

Optimize your cloud migration strategy in 5 steps

1. Assess your business needs & cloud options

Critically assess your business needs and identify which assets need to be digitized, what level of cloud integration would be most suitable and then choose an appropriate cloud model. In the absence of capable in-house IT talent, use the services of a third-party cloud migration provider. Minimizing operational disruption is critical for business continuity.

There are broadly two types of cloud migration:

• A shallow cloud integration involves migrating applications with minimal or no change to the servers.
• A deep integration requires businesses to modify applications during the migration process.

Select a suitable cloud model:

• A single cloud model is enough for one service or application.
• A multi-cloud model, which can include a hybrid of public and private clouds, may be more versatile for multiple projects.

2. Enlist a trusted cloud service partner

Once your migration strategy is finalized, evaluate the list of available cloud providers based on their costs and capabilities. The tools and features they provide should be compatible with your existing data and applications and meet the digital needs of your business. Do not underestimate the value of post-migration support, when more and more sophisticated services are going to become available.

3. Execute & keep a close watch on cloud usage/systems

At this stage, businesses need to set clear deadlines and follow the migration schedule closely so that all assets and systems are properly transferred. Communication with staff and customers at this stage is essential to minimize disruption and frustration.

Cloud usage must be monitored regularly to identify any efficiency gaps and to prevent possible data loss. After the migration is complete, the business must monitor all systems and processes to ensure the smooth running of operations.

4. Enable your staff to navigate the cloud platform efficiently

Help employees adopt a digital mindset and empower them with the right skills to work on the cloud. Prioritize in-house training on how to use and navigate the cloud efficiently. Not only will this boost your people’s confidence, but it will also prevent future disruptions and improve operational efficiency as the business continues on its digitalization path.

5. Be aware of compliance with regional regulations

Clouds are ‘borderless’ but businesses must be aware of local data residency regulations. Cloud compliance should be evaluated alongside step 1 so that necessary regulations pervade every aspect of cloud migration. Errors can complicate processes and hinder work.

In Singapore, one of our clients faced issues with Singapore’s detailed data rules for institutions because of the geographical spread of their data.

To overcome such hurdles, we developed the Arcus Region Migration Automation (ARMS) Platform Plan for the client, which was able to automatically and accurately discover existing data assets in its source region. Our ARMS Platform Plan keeps businesses aware of, and within the scope of data residency requirements. Meanwhile, the Elastic Computing (EC2) version also identified existing resources that were due for upgrades, leading to a more efficient yet compliant cloud migration.

To take the first important step towards digital transformation, businesses must assess their cloud migration plans seriously. Once this step is in place, you’ll find the rest of the journey is more seamless.

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Recently, an online study indicated that almost 30 percent of participants would leave their jobs if their company rescinded remote working arrangements. This suggests that cloud-based workspaces are already shaping expectations of what the future of working will look like – and may very well become the foundation upon which next-generation offices will be built.

Increased downsizing or removal of physical offices

Thanks to the cloud, employees no longer need to be tethered to physical offices as they can now access essential data, applications and critical systems from anywhere – especially with cloud native desktop virtualisation services. These services are usually deployed on a virtual private cloud, which means no data is stored on the local device and the security risk is reduced.

Better agility, cost optimisation, security and reliability are driving many companies to downsize their physical offices in favour of this more fluid arrangement, including historically inflexible financial institutions such as banks. As more companies look to cut operational costs to weather the economic downturn, we may see more opting to go fully virtual to slash their overheads and stay afloat.

Better internal collaboration and business continuity

A significant benefit of cloud-based workspaces is their ability to digitally collaborate in real-time. With cloud storage and cloud-based productivity apps, we may see team members working on the same document or accessing the same files at the same time instead of sifting through long email chains or slowly downloading and unzipping files. This should result in significantly increased efficiency and productivity, as well as faster turnaround times for projects.

A cloud-based setup also enables businesses to continue from anywhere in case of physical disruption. For instance, in traditional call centre setups, employees can only take calls at their desks. But a cloud-based contact centre means customer support agents can work from anywhere instead of a centralised location – and cloud makes it possible to enhance the call experience with artificial intelligence.

At Cloud Kinetics, we implemented AWS Connect for a client. The client, a global colocation data center, was looking for a Contact Centre solution for their end Customers across East Asia and Europe regions. The client was looking to standardize the entire Contact Centre solution by using a common call flow to the extent possible including a feature-rich CCP. Further, all integrations starting from retrieving information from SalesForce CRM to updating fields & call text in those regions where it was mandated, were created as components. As a result, we were able to deliver an enhanced user experience with personalized IVR based on the caller region

Enhanced computing speed for heavier tasks

The cloud’s powerful, scalable computing abilities mean that it is capable of handling heavy computing and processing tasks – once thought only possible with extensive on-premise setups. It can store, analyse and process huge amounts of data in very little time, which will be significant to companies as more process-intensive tasks go digital.

As an example, India’s largest electricity distributor had an on-premise IT setup that was struggling to analyse the immense quantities of SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) data – up to 500,000 records per day – to generate timely multi-dimensional reports for their decision-makers. This slowed their response time on fixing transmission losses and power failures, as well as on improving service quality.

To resolve that reporting bottleneck, we leveraged our expertise as an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Premier Partner to facilitate the daily transfer of that raw data to the AWS cloud storage. These massive data droves were processed in batches for data cleansing, transformation and loading, resulting in reports being generated in less than a minute instead of 5-12 hours previously. Additionally, we reduced their data storage costs by 60 percent via introducing a pay-as-you-go cloud model.

Shaping the future of work

Remote working is not a new concept. It has been around for many years, although the benefits of cloud-based workspaces have accelerated its popularity and made it a frontrunner for the future standard of work. With increased computing power, sophisticated cloud managed services and sheer flexibility, cloud-based workspaces are the natural evolution of the workplace.

As we step into a digital future, companies will require more data insights, collaborative efficiency, higher agility and lower costs to stay competitive – all prominent features of the cloud-based model. That is why we believe it is here to stay, and companies would do well to not just prepare, but join this digital transformation revolution.

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Digital literacy is no longer the knowledge of effectively using our mobile apps or engage on social media. Businesses are increasingly faced with the ultimatum of going digital or going bust, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns of physical establishments.

The onus is now on the businesses to technologically reinforce themselves in today’s economy, which they can do by combining internal efforts and getting the required help from experts providing digital transformation services.

Digital literacy’s role today

The need for digital transformation

A joint survey by Microsoft and IDC Asia Pacific showed that approximately 75 percent of Singaporean businesses had to accelerate the digitalization of their operations to survive through COVID-19. These enterprises took significant hits to their revenue, due in no small part to forced closures and reduced operating capacities from lockdowns, thereby hastening the transition of processes and offerings to online platforms to ensure operational and business continuity.

The findings exemplify how going digital would aid businesses in optimizing digital tools and platforms (such as internet browsers and software applications) to strengthen the quality, efficiency and productivity of operations. This emphasizes the need for businesses and their employees to be digitally literate so that they can further understand the digital gaps in their operations and determine which digital solutions are required, in addition to becoming competent in fully utilizing such tools.

One example of a digital skill that is transforming how businesses operate (and for others to easily adopt) is social selling, a lead-generation technique that involves salespersons directly interacting with prospective customers through social media platforms. A study showed that 39 percent of B2B professionals experienced a significant reduction in the amount of time taken to search for potential leads with social selling as opposed to traditional non-digitized sales methods such as cold calling.

Why digital literacy is now crucial

Digital productivity

A study in 2020 saw 43 percent of participants deeming the lack of digital skills as the biggest hindrance to their digitization projects. With the increasing role of digital transformation occurring in the world today, it is imperative that businesses have the capacity to maximize the utility of the digital tools available.

Dedicated efforts to digital literacy will equip the workplace with the ability to critically analyse the features of these digital tools and identify if these tools are in the most updated versions. Businesses can assess if the existing tools require upgrades while reducing their own cognitive load of understanding the technicalities of these tools, hence maximizing the productivity of their processes.

Cybersecurity awareness

Digital literacy incentivizes businesses to make more well-informed decisions regarding the potential digital threats present in the online environments. With notable digital breaches such as the 2020 Twitter breach, which saw prominent figures being indirectly involved in a bitcoin scam, it is ever more crucial for businesses to possess the digital knowledge and skill to protect itself from online threats.

Businesses can use their digital literacy to also proactively develop sound practices in safety measures like effective password management and using open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools that will strengthen corporate immunity to potential cyber-attacks or data threats.

Digital dexterity and adaptability

The successful outcome of new technological adoptions (such as utilizing workplace collaboration tools like Zoom or conducting cloud migrations) is reliant on how adaptive employees are to new technologies. A comprehensive digital understanding of digital tools such as cloud networks, enables businesses to become more agile towards tweaking their work processes according to these new platforms.

A business could leverage their acquired digital knowledge and methods to innovate business solutions that address existing operational issues. For example, using IoT to enhance shipment monitoring technology (like installing RFID tagging on shipment containers for real-time tracking) is possible only when the logistics company in question possesses the know-how of the process.

Building and improving workplace digital literacy

Internal efforts

Regular training for employees helps keep them attuned to the ever-evolving technological updates occurring in the digital world. Personal awareness of cyber threats is also fostered where employees can translate their own individual online security practices into the business’ digital footprint.

Periodic performance audits can also be supplemented to regular employee training as it would illustrate how efficient the workplace currently is at understanding and managing their digital environments. These audits can be integrated into cyclical appraisals which would indicate specific areas of improvement needed to be addressed to ensure a higher rate of continuity towards digital literacy in the workplace.

Getting outside expert help

External parties – such as professional digital transformation companies – can address the intellectual and technical disparities that exist between a business and the technology it wishes to adopt through services such as cloud consulting.

For instance, a client of ours was previously undergoing a cloud migration but required external help in automating the migrating process. By facilitating the transfer of the client’s data to the ARMS (Arcus Region Migration Automation) platform plan, we managed to provide a self-service toolkit that enabled our client to swiftly migrate their data while allowing for different departments to independently collaborate digitally on the platform. The result of this solution was that the client was able to achieve a migration cutover with zero error and with minimal downtime.

Thriving in the digital age

An environment that encourages continuous digital learning is imperative to the digital literacy of the workplace due to the constant upgrades of our technological world. As the trend of digital migration continues to penetrate corporate infrastructures, the depth of digital education will be magnified for all working professionals.

Empowered by digital literacy, the quality of online collaboration and problem-solving initiatives will be improved. Such growth only adds to the fundamental efficiency of data governance, enhancing a business’ readiness to not only survive, but flourish in the digital age of today and tomorrow.

The post Importance Of Digital Literacy In The Workplace appeared first on Cloud Kinetics.

Many CIOs agree that they underestimate the amount of work needed to engage their workforce to embrace digital transformation. When an organization embarks on their digital transformation, the management tends to focus mainly on technology. However, the companies who succeed are the ones who embrace the importance of the human experience through Change Leadership.

Change Leadership refers to the driving force, vision and processes that power large-scale transformation. It involves managing staff members see and accept the value of change and how they can contribute in making the change happen. This kind of an approach will ensure that the whole organization works harmoniously on the digital transformation journey.

Steps to get your organization ready for digital transformation

Involve stakeholders early

A key element in any successful transformation project is engaging stakeholders from the beginning so that they can act as champions of change within the company. Identify key team members and involve them in the process early. It would help to meet with team leaders and try to understand their pain points with the current systems. This will not only highlight the areas to focus on, it will make the leaders feel that they are a part of the process. This will propel them to cheerlead the change initiatives, answer their team’s questions/concerns and ensure their respective teams are ready for the upcoming changes.

Focus on the ‘Why’

Today’s Change Leaders should consciously connect their people to the ‘WHY’ behind the transformation initiatives, so that every employee of the organization can take pride in their work. Let’s face it – no one likes change. Explaining why certain changes are being made – like process improvements, increasing efficiency etc. will help people understand and adapt to the changes taking place. Sometimes, employees resist change as they feel that their jobs are at stake. Explaining how the changes will help them – for example shorten work cycles or improve quality – will help them know that they are not being replaced.

Create a strong Digital Culture

Accepting change requires a shift in mind-set. Creating a strong digital culture encourages employees to look for out-of-the-box solutions by engaging outward with customers and partners. It inspires people to take risks, fail fast, learn and move forward. A digital organization also thrives on transparency, speed and continuous iterations. If Change leaders can create such a foundation in the organization, employees will be more accepting of change. In fact, they will come to expect constant innovation through digital initiatives in the organization.

A recent BCG study conducted with 40 digital transformations showed that companies that focused on creating a digital culture were 5 times more likely to achieve breakthrough performance than companies that didn’t.

Develop Digital Skills

When an organization is transforming, it needs employees who can quickly adapt and start using the new technologies that are being implemented. Without this crucial element, the company would not be able to benefit from its various initiatives. Various research has shown that lack of required skill-sets is one of the greatest challenges listed by CIOs against digital transformation. Change leaders can overcome this challenge by building a pool of skilled digital employees and nurture existing employees to develop digital skills. This will encourage employees to enhance their capabilities and contribute more effectively to the organization.

Conclusion

The real purpose of digital transformation is to strengthen human capabilities. How the change is handled within the organization can make a big difference to the success of digital transformation. Technology may be the enabler of change but it is the people – employees, users, customers – who will ultimately transform the way your business functions. The first question every CIO should ask himself before starting is – How is this transformation going to impact people? With this as the starting point, chances of a successful digital transformation are greatly enhanced.

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