Majority of decision makers — 55 percent of ITDMs and 51 percent of BDMs — expect a disruptive technology to be introduced to their industry within the next two years, said a global survey by Juniper Networks.
However, IT departments aren’t feeling prepared for the changes ahead. 45 percent of ITDMs believe a quarter or more of their IT workforce will not have the skills they need to succeed five years from now.
The Juniper Networks study from over 2,700 IT and business decision-makers revealed that companies are not prepared for the inevitable impact of digital disruption.
Rami Rahim, CEO of Juniper Networks, said: “True innovation requires an understanding of the value that technology delivers. Now more than ever, savvy technology investments are vital to maintaining a business advantage.”
Juniper Networks today announced an expansion of the company’s OpenLab program to seven locations worldwide. OpenLab provides customers, partners, academics and other industry leaders with hands-on access to network automation workshops, educational programs and dedicated lab resources.
84 percent of ITDMs and 84 percent of BDMs admit their organization would perform better if their current C-Suite were more tech-savvy.
46 percent of ITDMs and 50 percent of BDMs expect it would take one or more years for their company to develop and support an improved product or service if challenged by a competitor. That’s time they may not have given the speed at which disruption can hit.
Legacy infrastructure is slowing business growth. More than half of respondents indicated their company’s IT infrastructure would be very or somewhat likely to create an obstacle in accelerating a new product or service.
Organizations need to address impending industry disruption by rethinking their IT approach to ensure they are investing in ongoing innovation. Market advantage is more likely to last when leadership stays at the forefront of technology innovation.
Study results show that both ITDMs and BDMs see IT and network automation as essential for their company’s future competitiveness.
70 percent of ITDMs and 72 percent of BDMs) say they’re excited by the opportunities network and IT automation create for their company. Of the ITDMs already using software-defined networking (SDN) or network functions virtualization (NFV), 93 percent say it’s given them a significant edge over their competitors.
ITDMs at companies that have adopted SDN report greater benefits and capabilities than they originally expected; respondents were most likely to report cloud interconnect, virtual data center and security automation as the business benefits of SDN adoption.
ITDMs at companies that have adopted NFV reported greater benefits and capabilities than they originally expected; respondents were most likely to report that NFV adoption enables virtual security, virtual routing and WAN optimization.
