COVID-19: Five Recommendations for Cloud-Provider IT Leaders

Market analysts at Omdia have been assessing the COVID-19’s impact on the global data center and IT industry. Cliff Grossner, senior director of research for Omdia’s Cloud and Data Center Research Practice, has put together this list of recommendations for IT decision makers working for cloud service providers to help them adjust to the new reality. After reading Cliff’s recommendations, be sure to visit Omdia’s dedicated page for free resources the analysts are offering to help practitioners and vendors deal with the challenges presented by the pandemic.

Recommendations for Cloud-Provider IT Decision Makers

Ensure additional redundancy in the supply chain. There will be increased demand for services, which could exhaust existing IT infrastructure and trigger the need to rapidly expand capacity. Potential delays due to single-source strategies should be avoided.

Have minimal reliance on a single person. Disruptions due to loss of staff at a location must be avoided. Remote operations capabilities should be in place at all critical facilities.

Increase data storage capacity. We can expect a jump in data being stored in cloud service provider data centers to support remote work, especially file sharing and disaster recovery. As CSPs become more integrated with critical business processes of their clients, there will be additional need for cold storage due to compliance regulations.

Revisit PoP capacity for remote work. We can expect an increase in bandwidth at points for presence due to remote work and connectivity to cloud services, such as gaming, as people not able to work search for leisure activities.

Prepare for demand surge for edge hardware. As organizations lay in solutions for automation and remote operations, they will have to deploy equipment and services that enable this new mode of operation. CSPs that offer edge-related services should prepare for an increase in demand.

See also: COVID-19: Five Recommendations for Enterprise IT Leaders