The Covid-19 pandemic has no doubt brought about changes to the way we work and live. Here are some trends that Sumir Bhatia, president of Lenovo’s Infrastructure Solution Group in Asia Pacific, believes organisations in the region should consider as they reconfigure their business.
Hybrid work
Being in the enterprise tech industry for over 10 years, Bhatia says one of the biggest trends looking ahead has to be hybrid work arrangements, which stemmed from the pandemic.
“All of us faced a very challenging time over the last two years. The way that we worked, the way we learned, the way we shopped, the way we entertained ourselves and connected with families – this totally changed,” he says.
“To me, we could only do that with technology. If you look back, we became stronger; we still continued [because we had the technology],” he adds.
“The rise in hybrid cloud adoption will enable a hybrid workforce. Our customers are going to look at taking some of their things on-premises as well as cloud. Do I see people going back in the office full-time? I don’t think so. But I think there’ll be a mix of both – hybrid work environment which also helps in hybrid tech. I do believe that hybrid cloud will enable this by several strengths and reducing complexities, taking the modernisation of legacy systems,” he continues.
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The unified strength of IoT, edge computing and AI
The number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices worldwide is expected to hit 30.9 billion by 2025. However, harnessing the full potential of IoT requires leveraging the unified strength of IoT, edge computing, and artificial intelligence (AI).
“People talk of IoT in one brush. In my opinion, it’s not standalone. With IoT, the edge and AI and the cloud around, [the combined product] will be the next big thing,” says Bhatia.
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He adds: “What continues to be an added challenge for many enterprises is that the data generated at remote locations has to travel to the core data centre or the cloud for processing. Data latency affects business operations and thus, performance. Having an edge server eliminates the need for data to travel, and aided by AI, ensures faster and real-time intelligence.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations
Once considered a “good-to-have”, ESG should now be a “must-have” for businesses. “The trend is very important is because consumers are getting very responsible around sustainability. This includes their consideration in terms of the products/solutions they’re buying,” says Bhatia.
“At Lenovo, we’ve reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 92% in FY2019/2020. We’re on our way to meeting the 2030 goal to reducing direct emissions and emissions related to purchasing electricity steam and cooling by 50%,” he shares.
Everything-as-a-service
According to Bhatia, businesses’ IT requirements are evolving every 12 to 18 months, which has added to the pressure of keeping up with the speed of innovation. They are looking for avenues to reduce complexities and gain ultimate flexibility for their IT infrastructure investments.
In response to this, Lenovo offers Lenovo TruScale, an everything-as-a-service solution that enables businesses of all sizes to move away from a capital expenditure to an operating expenditure model. Lenovo TruScale provides a scalable, cloud-like consumption model and predictable payment options for hardware and service inclusions, empowering businesses with the flexibility they need to stay competitive.
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Metaverse
Bhatia is buoyant on the prospects of the metaverse. “Lenovo’s end-to-end offering from pocket to the data centre to the cloud gives us an edge, and we are optimistic about the future of the metaverse,” he says.
“A recent Lenovo survey found that 43% of employees believe that their employer does not have the knowledge or expertise to enable them to work in the metaverse in the future. This shows that organisations need to have the right tech stack from the right technology partner,” he shares.
“The metaverse will foster an exponential increase in the demand for smart AR/VR devices, distributed and edge computing to process and render the massive volumes of data. With our everything-as-a-service offering, we’re well-positioned, together with partners, to shape the development of a metaverse workplace,” he adds.
Cover photo of Lenovo: Bloomberg
