The impact the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has had on the pace of digital transformation in UK enterprises has been laid bare by colocation giant Equinix’s latest annual Tech trends survey.
According to the findings of its poll, which featured responses from 2,600 IT decision-makers from 26 countries, almost half (48%) of the UK participants said the pandemic had prompted their organizations to pick up the pace of their digital transformation plans. That compares with 47% globally.
At the same time, 45% of UK respondents said their organization’s IT budgets had been bolstered to accommodate the shift in “digital demands” brought about by the pandemic, In comparison,42% of the pool of global respondents said the same.
“Despite the negative impact of the pandemic on many industry sectors and functions, almost half of businesses have increased their IT budgets, rather than reducing them, as a result of the pandemic,” detailed Equinix in the accompanying report for this year’s Tech Trends survey.
In line with this, 67% of UK respondents said they had revised their IT strategy in the wake of the pandemic, with 55% indicating their change in plans included investing more in technology to boost the business agility of their organizations.
As repeatedly reported by Computer Weekly, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Spring of 2020 prompted a rapid response from businesses across the globe to ensure they could accommodate remote working and pivot to support changes to consumer spending habits.
Aside from investing in technologies that can make it easier for organizations to adapt their business strategies in response to world events rapidly, half of the UK respondents said their organizations are planning to expand into new cities and countries in due course
Claire Macland, senior vice-president of global marketing at Equinix, said there are aigns within the survey that business leaders are investing in ensuring their organizations are set up to support hybrid working models for the post-pandemic era. Many companies are now investing more in their digital infrastructure to enable them to embrace a hybrid working model and thrive in the new world of work we all find ourselves in. Despite headwinds in many sectors, many organizations are continuing to expand physically and virtually into new markets and regions worldwide,” she said.
Russell Poole, UK managing director of Equinix, said the survey’s findings align with his observations of how the digital transformation priorities of companies have shifted over the past 18 months. For several years now, businesses in the UK have been re-architecting their legacy IT infrastructures and adopting new and agile technologies to increase flexibility and scalability,” he said. The findings of this survey demonstrate how the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated their digital transformation journeys, with enterprises having to double down on their efforts to cater to a dispersed workforce. The pandemic has changed thowwe work,across industries, both in the UK and further afield, challenging traditional notions of workplace collaboration.
