By Mauricio Gonzalez, Veeam’s Vice President of Sales for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Almost a year and a half after our reality changed, it is time to analyze the positive aspects of the pandemic. There is no doubt that in this balance we must highlight the progress of digital transformation (DX), and all that this entails for the benefit of all.
At the beginning of last year, according to our 2020 Data Protection Trends Report, only 19% of the companies surveyed by Veeam in the region, including Argentina, indicated that nothing was preventing them from advancing in their DX initiatives; the rest pointed to obstacles such as lack of skills or experience in transformation on the part of IT staff (45%), dependence on traditional systems and technologies (39%) and lack of time (30%), among others. But from one quarter to the next this has changed significantly, and with it the outlook we can expect as consumers.
A study conducted by the IDB and the OAS[1] indicates that Latin America advanced in three months during 2020 the levels of digital transformation that were expected to be achieved in three years. Without a doubt, Covid-19 highlighted the need to continue advancing towards digitalization in our daily lives. Below are 4 trends capitalized by this evolution, and the challenges that persist around them:
- No contact in restaurants. Social distancing has led the industry to look for new ways to serve customers and employees. Many restaurants are using QR codes to scan menus, reservations and orders. The challenge: to take advantage of the new digital data generated.
- Virtual reality (VR) conferencing. Whether at work or at family gatherings, virtual conferences with VR and immersive capabilities are breaking through to create experiences on a different level, allowing them to create avatars, share 360° videos, make drawings and graphics that everyone can see and modify in real time, and even look directly at another participant (avatar), make gestures or touch them. The challenge: for the platform to intelligently manage and migrate this information so that we don’t miss anything.
- Digital banking. Circumstances have led banks to accelerate their DX strategy to continue serving customers and optimizing their experience without leaving home. The challenge: increasing cybersecurity.
- Our health is supported by artificial intelligence (AI). In recent months, we have seen more technologies aimed at fighting contagions: image analysis systems for early diagnosis and crowd detection solutions are two concrete examples that use AI. The challenge: ensuring high availability so that this translates into lives saved.
We are sure that these trends will go beyond the pandemic, as they are opening up new possibilities for everyone. It’s all about solving the challenges they bring, and as they are all related to data management, security and availability, whether on our personal devices, in company data centers or migrating between different clouds and platforms, the key is for organizations’ IT areas to have automated, integrated, coordinated, orchestrated and intelligent technological infrastructures that protect data and applications while facilitating Data Management in the Cloud.
