The IT Transformation Continuum: Adjusting Technology Initiatives to Fit Into the Digital World

Before you can understand the IT Transformation Continuum, it’s important to define IT transformation itself. Precipitated by digitalization, IT transformation enables businesses to digitalize and optimize existing systems to route IT dollars back to the core of the business. In order to succeed with IT transformation, businesses must seek to modernize infrastructures, automate IT processes and shift both operating models and procedures for agility and to ensure alignment between business and IT, Dell EMC explained.

At first glance, you may wonder why the statistic above isn’t 100 percent, which is where the concept of the IT Transformation Continuum becomes relevant. All businesses are likely experiencing IT transformation on some level. However, there’s a difference between total transformation and making small changes. When you view IT transformation as a continuum, the conversation becomes about shifting business continuously to account for changes as they arise. For most organizations, it’s not as simple as deciding on an entirely new strategy and ripping out the whole infrastructure.

IT transformation is a great word to describe what businesses need to do in the age of digitalization, but it arguably implies that it’s an abrupt, all-encompassing decision executed on in one fell swoop, which is often not the case. The IT Transformation Continuum contains multiple infrastructures and workloads and represents where your business stands in the ongoing process of innovating, phasing out legacy systems, and shifting operating models to excel in the digital economy.

Costs of traditional IT need to be minimized and reallocated into more innovative technology initiatives. People, processes and technology all come into play, and implementing efficiencies in each area is key. Teams must become highly efficient, technologies must enable people and processes streamlined and automated to ensure superior functionality.