The Digital Business era has arrived. That’s according to IDC, which recently said that businesses are no longer focusing on transformation. Instead, they need to unlock the next step in their innovation journey.
All the work that has gone into their digital transformation has laid the groundwork for what comes next. Now, enterprises should be focused on continuing to find and grow new digital revenue streams, while meeting and managing the constantly changing expectations of all their stakeholders.
The Digital Business era
Underpinning it all is the digital infrastructure, a secure foundation that allows companies to manage and deploy the environments, connectivity, workloads and applications that enable the digital business era. Enterprises know this is vital: according to another IDC report, 80% of decision-makers worldwide recognize that digital infrastructure is important or mission-critical to achieving business goals.
But what do enterprises need to consider when planning, procuring and deploying the right digital infrastructure for their organizational needs? The key components were recently covered in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Communications Service Provider Digital Infrastructure and Services 2023 Vendor Assessment:
- Cloud
- Connectivity
- As-a-service composability
- Security
- AI-ready infrastructure
This aligns with what we see in the market and what our customers respond to. They’re becoming more distributed and agile, which requires greater connectivity and reliable, fast data access.
A foundation of cloud, connectivity, cybersecurity
Understandably, cloud environments are critical to enabling digital business. Enterprises understand the value of private and public clouds. What has been lacking is the ability to connect everything with network connectivity that mirrors the agile, scalable and secure nature of cloud computing.
This connectivity needs to be consumable in a way that enterprises are comfortable with; they have grown used to as-a-service IT and expect it from all their technology investments. As well as cloud, they will have edge and on-premise deployments that all need to be connected, with a network that scales as the business evolves.
And it must be secure. The network is increasingly a target: Orange Cyberdefense identified six times more incidents affecting the network than being cloud-related in 2023.
As IT security becomes more sophisticated, we’ll likely see more attempts to compromise networks as bad actors look for other ways into enterprises.
At the same time, enterprises struggle to recruit the right staff, keep up to date with patches and updates, and protect their complex arrays of environments and networks. They’re looking for integrated solutions where security is embedded, not added on, and can be easily managed.
And all of this must consider the impact of artificial intelligence. The generative AI boom has driven many enterprises to reconsider whether their infrastructures can cope with the technology’s huge computing and data demands. An IDC survey found that 52% of GenAI investments will go on dedicated or public cloud infrastructure in the next 18 months.
The infrastructure for digital business
These trends are shaping how enterprises acquire the right digital infrastructure for their needs, forming the core focus of our digital infrastructure offering, Evolution Platform.
Composable and adaptable, it has been built to combine network-as-a-service connectivity with a cloud-native experience to build, deploy and operate services from the platform.
Security is embedded throughout, turning what was a weak link into a protected backbone that constantly evolves with the latest cyberdefense practices and approaches.
Orange Business was recently positioned as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Communications Service Provider Digital Infrastructure and Services 2023 Vendor Assessment (doc #US51313823, November 2023). The report noted, “Orange Business should be considered for businesses that need European and/or Middle Eastern or African coverage and for their digital infrastructure and managed network service requirements.”
According to Courtney Munroe, VP of Worldwide Telecommunications Research at IDC, we distinguished ourselves with our “keen focus on enabling digital transformation for enterprises, leveraging its class-leading global network and diverse services portfolio spanning multiple industries.
“Orange Business’ vision focuses on solving the key challenges facing enterprises, which includes the provision of secure digital infrastructure, with seamless integration of innovative capabilities, including professional, managed network and cloud services. This is implemented with AI-driven automation to reduce complexity and costs while offering its customers an enhanced augmented customer experience.”
Thriving in the Digital Business era
Enterprises that want to thrive in the Digital Business era are looking for ways to reinvent how they operate and deliver value.
To achieve that, they need a digital infrastructure that provides a platform for innovation. Evolution Platform combines our global cloud, connectivity and cybersecurity capabilities to support just that.
Learn more about the themes shaping digital infrastructure and how Orange Business is a Leader in the excerpt: IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Communications Service Provider Digital Infrastructure and Services 2023 Vendor Assessment.
Anne-Marie Thiollet, Deputy Chief Products and Marketing Officer for Orange Business, leads the value proposition and its underpinning portfolio of products and services across the whole footprint of Orange Business for all customer segments. Since joining Orange in 1992, she has extensively contributed to the development of B2B activities, ranging from product innovation, marketing, tools and business processes to strategy. Anne-Marie is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and Telecom ParisTech.