While more than half of the IT and business decision-makers (ITDMs and BDMs) expect a new disruptive technology or service to be introduced within the next two years, IT departments aren’t feeling prepared for the changes, a report said.

About 45 per cent of ITDMs and BDMs believe a quarter or more of their IT workforce will not have the skills they need to succeed five years from now, added the new global report from Wakefield Research and Juniper Networks, an industry leader in automated, scalable and secure networks.

“The ICT sector plays an integral role in creating long-term, sustainable economic and business growth in the Middle East. Juniper supports its customers in the digital transformation journey by investing in network innovation,” said Adrian Pickering, vice president of Middle East and Africa at Juniper Networks.

“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. The C-Suite doesn’t need to code, but leading a company strategy for growth requires a strong relationship between those who set the strategy and those who execute.”

Nearly nine in 10 respondents (84 per cent of ITDMs and 84 per cent of BDMs) admit their organisation would perform better if their current C-Suite were more tech-savvy.

A lack of investment in IT creates a barrier to innovation, preventing business from keeping up with the pace of change and staying competitive. Nearly half of the respondents (46 per cent of ITDMs and 50 per cent 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. To remain relevant today, 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.

To stay ahead of the disruption curve, organizations should prioritize network automation investments. Study results show that both ITDMs and BDMs see IT and network automation as essential for their company’s future competitiveness.

Nearly three in four respondents (70 per cent of ITDMs and 72 per cent 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), nearly all (93 per cent) 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.

The study, commissioned by Juniper Networks, was conducted by Wakefield Research via an online survey of 2,704 respondents in the US, China, Australia, Japan, India, UK, Germany and France. – TradeArabia News Service