Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 73 | Page 48

FEATURE : DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Transformation in a way that brings value to the organisation ,” he said .
Van Staden said going smarter means companies can map out their strategies based on identifying the right technology that fits their needs while translating that into critical steps for execution . driven by data , and that data can only be stored and processed with the help of many data centres and Kingston is focusing on this as part of supporting Digital Transformation .
Harb said first of all , it should be said that the outlook for data centres is optimistic due to skyrocketing data usage . “ In fact , it has been said , that by 2025 we will produce 175 zettabyte . To put this in perspective , this is 175 with 21 zeros .
“ This increase in data production and consumption , comes unsurprising , given the on-going popularity of streaming services as well as virtual collaboration tools and remote working . This , in turn , has led to the record demands for data centres in the last two years ,” he said .
At Obsidian Systems , Muggie van Staden , MD and CEO , said Digital Transformation is permeating every industry sector around the world . “ Take retail for example . Today , even senior citizens are using apps to buy their groceries and perform online shopping . Food and grocery deliveries have become part of the new normal . This has resulted in great employment stories around the positive impact of Digital Transformation in retail where brands are investing in technology to expand their footprint and provide customers with new channels for engagement .
Van Staden said the banking sector provides another transformative story . He said mobile money solutions for the massive unbanked population in Africa is an innovative way that Digital Transformation challenges and helps to overcome the financial divide .
“ The continent has had no choice but to be innovative due to the unique infrastructure obstacles that exist here . However , there is no one size fits all approach when it comes to Digital Transformation . For each company it can mean something else . It comes down to adopting a smarter framework that assists with the strategy development on realising Digital
“ The central theme is how an enterprise is able to get value from the technology and the Digital Transformation efforts it adopts . One of the biggest challenges when it comes to Digital Transformation is change management . It is not always a case of if the organisation builds something , the employees or customers will come . Most people are creatures of habit . They do things in certain ways and rarely experiment with different things . Fortunately , the need to adapt to a new environment in recent years has contributed to changing mindsets . But there is more work to be done ,” he said .
Maher Jadallah , Senior Director Middle East and North Africa , Tenable , said a company ’ s digital infrastructure is core to its ability to function . Jadallah said while the infrastructure that underpins organisations today is only vaguely recognisable from three years ago , the way organisations approach security hasn ’ t adapted . “ The result is security teams struggling to protect a pervious perimeter with evolving devices all connected to hybrid infrastructure combined of on-prem and cloud .
“ When threat actors evaluate a company ’ s attack surface , they ’ re not thinking in terms of organisational silos . They ’ re probing for the right combination of vulnerabilities , misconfigurations and identity privileges . Most security solutions today are triggered by events , after intrusion has occurred , leaving security teams in a constant state of crisis . This fails to reduce the risks that exist within the network ,” he commented .
Jadallah pointed out that instead of reactive security , organisations need to focus on a proactive security programme strengthening defences before threat actors attack or even take aim . “ This requires holistic visibility of the entire modern attack surface . Security teams need to see all of their software vulnerabilities , misconfigurations , who is using what systems and what level of access they have all correlated together , regardless of whether it ’ s happening on a laptop , a container , an application or a programmable logic controller ( PLC ),” he said . This provides the full breadth and depth of the organisation ’ s exposures allowing the team to take the actions needed to reduce threats through remediation and incident response workflows . As a cyber defence strategy , this closes the attack paths within the infrastructure which leaves the organisation far more secure . p
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