As this year’s VMworld 2015 has come to a close I think one of the biggest impressions I was left with was from VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger’s remarks as he closed up the day 2 keynote. Pat mentioned that he expected that in the coming years IT and technology will see more change that at any time in the past. It seems to me that all of the big technology companies are working hard at transforming the way they do business to embrace mobility and take advantage of the cloud -- not only to change the type of products that they offer but also to change their business models from a per product model to subscription based offerings. VMware is certainly moving in this direction as is Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Google and others. Mobility has definitely played a big part here. Pat stated that today the mobile cloud connects 3.1 billion of the 7.3 billion people in the world and that by 2025 80% of the world will be connected. Clearly devices, data and digital connectivity will continue to grow at an unprecedented pace.
To guide businesses in how to deal with this torrent of technological changes Pat presented five imperative for digital business in the coming times:
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Asymmetry in Business – Technology rules are rapidly changing and to continue to succeed businesses need to innovate like a startup but deliver like an enterprise.
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Now Entering: The Professional Era of Cloud – Bridging the silos of the public and private clouds is required to deliver a professional cloud experience. VMware’s unified hybrid cloud strategy is designed to bridge this gap.
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The Security Challenge: Protecting People, Apps, and Data –Security can’t be bolted on. It must be architected in and virtualization enables this.
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The Next Wave of IT Innovation: Proactive Technology –Today’s technology is fundamentally reactive. Future technologies like smarter software and AI will enable businesses to become proactive.
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Tech-driven Change Reshapes the S&P 500 –Pat predicted that half of today’s Tech 100 will be gone in ten years. Inaction is the greatest risk and IT needs to drive transformation.
