Digital Ireland – Inclusive Recovery
Des Ryan, director of solutions at Microsoft Ireland, discusses the digital imperative and the need to combine investment in digital transformation and change with the right security solutions.
As we know, Irish businesses are well regarded for their entrepreneurial spirit and innovative mindset. The last two years have been no different. Whether they are family-run SMEs or larger multinational corporations, many of our customers have demonstrated a great determination and ability to adapt and overcome the challenges presented to them as a result of the pandemic.
What is clear is that the pandemic has acted as a catalyst for change and our latest report, Digital Ireland – Inclusive Recovery, highlights the significant untapped potential of digital technology to transform Ireland’s economy.
As part of the report, we asked an island-of-Ireland sample of 360 senior business leaders and technology leaders about the importance of cloud and digitalisation to their current and future operational needs.
It’s evident that organisations that are intending to expand their digital presence as part of their broader business strategy will have to invest not only in the hardware, software and services required to support digitalisation, but also the skills necessary to deliver their ambitions.
With such a seismic shift in the use of digital technologies to facilitate remote working, new e-commerce platforms and operating systems, cyber security needs to be the top priority for those embracing digital transformation within their organisations.
Over the past 20 months, we’ve seen significant changes in the cyber security threat landscape that are having a major impact on organisations of every size in every sector. The frequency and sophistication of cyber events have increased significantly. Unfortunately, this has security implications, which need to be closely managed to mitigate the risks across the organisation.
Looking forward, business leaders and technology leaders are very ambitious to use digitalisation and cloud to drive operational and financial success. But they recognise the critical role of cyber-security, and related infrastructural and procedural practices, to ensure that business progress is not disrupted by security lapses.
Our research highlights that 53 per cent of technology leaders say the biggest digital technology challenge for the finance sector is security and 59 per cent of public sector leaders are more likely to see cyber security as a top priority. A recurring theme in our research is that of security in the context of cloud, and, not surprisingly, we find that it is the number one barrier for 42 per cent of senior leaders when it comes to investing more in the cloud.
Concerns about cybersecurity are in the background – and the foreground – of every discussion about ways of working, customer service and innovation. As it should be. The challenge is to avoid legitimate concerns about risk becoming a barrier to change and progress. This imposes an extra responsibility on technology leaders to educate and reassure their colleagues, as well as on technology vendors and partners to reinforce the confidence of technology leaders as they drive the digitalisation agenda forward.
We are at a pivotal moment, as more employees work from home on a potentially permanent basis and more and more services are accessed online. Ireland has a unique opportunity to fully embrace the use of cloud services to support our post-Covid-19 economic recovery and enable more secure practices that support those working remotely and unlock new transformational technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence.
Cyber hackers are opportunistic, skilled and relentless. They have become adept at evolving their techniques to increase success rates, whether by experimenting with different phishing lures, adjusting the types of attacks they execute or finding new ways to hide their infiltration.
While the physical locations where we work may have changed, our responsibilities in protecting organisational data and complying with data regulations have not. Now is the time for business leaders to address this with an increased investment in cybersecurity, secure devices, tighter policies, more support, and education for employees to better protect themselves and their organisation.
For details on the Microsoft Ireland report: Digital Ireland– Inclusive Recovery visit: pulse.microsoft.com/en-ie/
