Kathy Gibson is at Fujitsu Forum 2018 in Munich – Digital disruption is real, and often even embracing the latest technologies isn’t enough to keep companies competitive.
The development of technology could be seen to level the playing fields in many industries – but just having the technology to create solutions doesn’t mean that just anyone is able to do so.
“The key is partnering,” says Thomas Häggström, hybrid IT offering manager at Fujitsu. “Digital technology spanning artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), cloud and more is complex.”
Fujitsu itself partners with multi-cloud service providers, integrators and resellers to deliver its hybrid cloud solution.
The Fujitsu methodology is around digital service orchestration that embraces the traditional infrastructure.
The first step is to standardise infrastructure where possible, says Häggström, followed by a rationalisation step that aims to reduce costs while raising manageability.
The next step is the dynamic level where new technologies are used to craft new and agile services.
Working through the cloud maturity model will enable companies to innovate, create their own ecosystems at platform scale and exploit new business opportunities.
On the application and database side, the starting point is to re-host where possible in a hybrid IT transformation.
The processes in this step are assess, plan, prove, transform, test, go live and decommissioning.
The next step is application modernisation, with replatforming as cloud services get underway.
This ranges from database, cloud, productivity and mobile transformation to document, open source, API and mainframe transformation.
The final step is to re-architect applications using cloud native accelerators.
These cloud native accelerators embrace APIs and integration, cloud data services, containers and serverless applications.
Häggström explains that customers are able to accelerate their digital journeys through partner programmes as well – for instance, the partnership with Microsoft offers a number of benefits for customers.
“But you need a transformational mindset as well,” he adds. Fujitsu offers management consulting as well as its Shinkansen deployment model.
The company has a compelling story to tell in the Microsoft Azure space. As a Microsoft gold partner, it is well positioned to enable Azure-based digital transformation, with a wide range of consulting and services available.
“So if you want to become the rock star of your industry – and do it now – you have to partner with a specialist in the industry,” says Häggström.
“You have to realise that transformation is not a single thing. It is a wide topic.
“And managing that digital infrastructure needs to be done with a transformational mindset.”