Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 09 | Page 71

TECH TALK “It’s crucial that IT leaders have sensible, practical and cost-effective answers to the question of how to ride the innovation curve by using data more effectively than anyone else.” www.intelligentcio.com insurer with additional personal and lifestyle information in order to get more relevant services and better deals. 67% said they would be willing to have a sensor attached to their car or home if it could reduce their premiums. Whatever innovation is happening at the customer frontline, it all boils down to one question for IT leaders in the service sector: “How can we help our organisations win in the digital economy – and do so with less IT complexity, less cost and absolutely minimal risk?” In other words, how can IT leaders invert IT spend and ‘have it all’? Experience tells us that the answer is data storage – how you architect and scale your storage, how you flex that storage to work at lightning speeds in both physical and virtual environments, and how you cost storage to deliver more business value, for less of your precious budget. This is because data is the currency of the digital economy. If it’s not serving the applications and systems that are driving your digital business, you’ll lose out in the race to customer intimacy and therefore profitability. Drive storage performance to keep the lid down on costs In no other business era has time been so critical an influence on success. In years past customers were happy to spend a few hours in the face-to-face company of their bank manager or insurance broker. Today, telephone INTELLIGENTCIO 71