Bridging the IT Resource Gap

An interesting study has recently come out of the UK that points to a broad gap between the IT requirements of a large number of companies, and their available resources to meet the needs. What’s more, the top priorities for the coming years include cloud computing, big data, mobile computing, and security. Altogether, these findings suggest there may be significant potential for Skkynet’s SkkyHub service to bridge the IT resource gap.

The report, Digital Leaders Survey from BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT in the UK, presents the results of surveys circulated among BCS members, clients, and non-member companies, addressed specifically to CIOs, digital leaders, IT managers, and CEOs. Among the key findings are:

• For the next 12 months, the 3 top IT concerns will be mobile computing, security, and cloud computing.
• For the coming 3 to 5 years, the concerns are similar: security, cloud computing, and big data.
• When asked what concern most keeps them awake at night, the overwhelming response was security–how to implement the various technologies in a secure way.
• Close to 90% of the companies surveyed felt they do not have the resources needed to meet these priorities. About half of them said their existing workforce needs to upgrade their IT skills, or they require more manpower, or both.       Over a third said they could use a bigger budget.

Keeping it Secure

Maintaining security at all phases of implementation of cloud and mobile computing is high on everyone’s list. Mission critical industrial systems must not be compromised in any way, or it could mean significant damage to infrastructure and possibly even human life. Financial systems risk ruin if data confidentiality is breached. No major corporation is immune from attack. Just look at the recent chaos at Sony Picture Entertainment resulting from a breaches in security.

Clearly, any cloud, mobile, or big data services offered must be secure. And as this is a relatively new area of IT, old approaches to security may not be sufficient. Industrial and financial cloud applications represent a special case, as their security requirements are higher than most, and yet they also require high-speed data throughput, as close to Internet latencies as possible.

This is why SkkyHub has attracted such interest in these markets. Secure by design, it takes a unique approach to security that requires no additional hardware or VPN, and yet opens no firewalls, leaving no attack surface exposed to the Internet. Data can flow through the system at speeds approaching real time, making it an ideal solution for industrial and financial cloud systems.

Doing More with Less

Valuable as it may be, a secure, mobile-friendly cloud and big data service may not be snapped up so quickly if there is no way to bring it on board. According to the survey, the vast majority of companies don’t have the budget or personnel to carry this off.

Wait, did I read that correctly? Aren’t we talking cloud systems? Isn’t one of the main draws of cloud computing cost savings? You shift your costs from capital expenses to operating expenses. No up-front investment, no amortization calculations. Just pay as you go.

And doesn’t a good SaaS solution reduce the need for highly qualified programmers? The purpose is to leave the specialty programming of data communication and connectivity to the experts, freeing up your people to do your work. So where is the problem?

Our vision at Skkynet is that with cloud computing you should be able to do more with less. The service should provide end-to-end connectivity with no programming required. Just sign up, configure, and start working with your live data. It should work transparently beside your existing systems, providing you and any other authorized user with secure access to the data you need. Software as a service should reduce your dependence on in-house IT resources, while saving you money.

We invite the respondents to the BCS Digital Leaders Survey, and anyone else, to try out SkkyHub and see. SkkyHub addresses the key issue of security, and bridges the IT resource gap by providing real-time software as a service in a way that is affordable and easy to implement.