Insights

The set of 'born digital' companies such as Uber, Amazon, AirBnB, Alibaba have provided lessons in digital disruption to the rest of the world. We live in the digital world where market disrupters are developing platforms that facilitate exchange between the customers and makers, partners or even peers, reshaping industries into interconnected ecosystems.

With the recent controversy involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, there is increasing pressure on companies that are dealing with data to deliver superior business and customer outcomes. Not just social media networks, but any company in the process of digital transformation. This includes firms leveraging new technologies and platforms, such as drones, AI and autonomous vehicles, to deliver value.

Artificial intelligence (AI) relies on big data and machine learning for myriad applications, from autonomous vehicles to algorithmic trading, and from clinical decision support systems to data mining. The availability of large amounts of data is essential to the development of AI. Given China's large population and business sector, both of which use digitized platforms and tools to an unparalleled extent, it may enjoy an advantage in AI. In addition, it has fewer constraints on the use of information gathered through the digital footprint left by people and companies.

Over the last decade, Cloud has undoubtedly been the biggest game changer on the technology front, coupled with the explosion in data and devices. Whether it is IaaS, SaaS, PaaS, Open Source on Cloud, or even allied areas such as Analytics and Mobility, the pace of adoption has been incredible.

Increasingly, we find that businesses no longer just view technology as an expense, but as an investment that can help them differentiate and stay ahead of competition. We see business owners being an integral part of the decision making, along with the CIO’s office.

More than ever, organizations are waking up to the importance of having a robust disaster recovery system in place to protect data, applications and servers in the event of unfortunate occurrences such as power outages, technical glitches and natural calamities.