Before the COVID-19 pandemic came, digital transformations that were happening across different enterprises, whether big or small, were purely tactical in nature. The transformations were only looking at either one aspect of the business or just focusing on IT transformation, which does not pull up the transformation of the entire business. When the pandemic came, transformations started evolving into total business or digital transformations, wherein the different layers of a business transform toward the business objectives that have been set by the stakeholders.
This is what Edler Panlilio, the president and CEO of Cloud4C Philippines, said regarding strategies for adopting and deploying mission-critical cloud solutions to protect business operations in the country, especially amid the pandemic, in an exclusive interview with Manila Bulletin. Cloud4C is one of the largest end-to-end automation-driven, application-focused managed cloud services providers in the world.
“When we all entered the pandemic, there are three sets of customers; two of these were not ready for the pandemic. The first set of customers was clueless about digital transformation. They were not pulling up for any transformation. The second set of customers started their transformation before the pandemic. However, when the pandemic hit them, they had to halt the transformation because they did not consider any risk mitigations that they need in case they are hit with a challenge like the pandemic. The third set of customers is the enterprises that are ready for the pandemic because they have the right transformation that they started before the crisis. These are the enterprises that we can emulate,” said Panlilio.
Panlilio added that organizations today are more focused on how to remain agile and make sure that they are future-proof. Before the pandemic, there was less propensity to invest in innovations as compared to after the global health crisis hit. Cloud4C is trying to infuse risk-mitigating measures in everything that it delivers as a service in the cloud because that approach will make enterprises more futureproof in addressing unforeseen events.
“What is the preparedness level of a business? Is risk mitigation considered in every digital transformation plan? How mature is the company to continue its innovation agenda and enable its workforce to adopt new technologies faster and drive them faster? From these questions, you can narrow down to risks associated with data security, confidentiality, integrity, availability, and sustainability,” he said.
Sustainability and future readiness through cloud
During the pandemic, businesses experienced an acceleration of cybersecurity threats. The situation prompted organizations to start changing or upscaling their respective security protocols. There have been a lot of discussions among enterprises about making sure that their data conforms with humanity or climate.
“I also said sustainability because if there will be a bigger disruption, it is the lingering problem of climate change. Companies realized that if they do not address the problem of climate change, they will face bigger consequences as compared to what they are facing today with the pandemic,” Panlilio warned.
“Sustainability now is imperative because of the known consequences that we are facing if we do not address the problem today. This problem has been long overdue to be addressed and today is probably the best time to address it because of some of the known consequences that we are facing. Not only in the Philippines but also globally, I see more enterprises right now trying to put more attention to the reduction of carbon footprint. They are also trying to push their employees to be conscious of the gravity of the problem. Hence, they should be able to do share in every way they can, whether it is just conserving energy, reducing the use of single-use plastics, and other similar initiatives,” he continued.
Cloud4C is enabling organizations to come up with an easier or more methodical way of measuring their initiatives to meet climate controls or carbon footprint measurements. Cloud4C leverages technology to make sure businesses have the right reporting tools to measure every product that is coming out of their supply chain in terms of what would be the carbon footprint of a particular product or if the product is coming from a particular vendor or manufacturer that has a reputation when it comes to the carbon footprint.
“In that way, we help them measure up to the level of products that flow into their supply chain. Hence, when they comply with environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) reporting, especially for publicly listed companies, it will be easier for them to conform to all the questions or metrics that have been set. In the Philippines, we are trying to enable enterprises, especially the bigger ones, to start setting the example on how to generate reports and using this reporting mechanism to comply seamlessly with the ESG requirements,” Panlilio explained.
Cloud4C has a self-healing operating platform that uses a lot of artificial intelligence and automation in every delivery of a service. Using AI and automation to deliver services reduces the cost of human resources because certain levels of services must be automated instead of passing them to people as tasks.
Another service offering unique to Cloud4C, the universal cloud platform (UCP) enables workload management through a single pane or panel in every environment whether with a hybrid private or public cloud or whether that is using one cloud instance or multiple cloud instances. It enables the management of workloads flowing through disparate cloud environments at every layer of the operations, whether it is the application, database, security, or compliance layer. Because the workloads are managed through one single panel, the platform introduces a lot of efficiencies and cuts costs.
“The main solution that we bring to the table is the fact that we are moving workloads into the cloud. Anything that moves into the cloud means less use of energy and less use of resources. Therefore, this equates to a lower carbon footprint. We need to redefine cloud transformation journeys with automation, continuous innovation, and intelligence. Those three things are what we put into every managed cloud service that we deliver,” said Panlilio.
“We must make sure that the service packs a lot of automation because it is what makes the service cost-efficient. We must make sure that the service has continuous innovation because it introduces a lot of efficiencies in the way companies roll out their operations. Of course, given the experience of the pandemic, we must have a lot of intelligence embedded into every service because we do not want to be reactive to the changes that are happening around us. Many external factors are moving around us and we want to make sure that that we have the right intelligence that gives us the foresight to help us prepare for these unforeseen incidents,” he concluded.