Survey shows that many Canadian companies are still not prepared for the massive digitization resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic
MONTREAL, July 29, 2020 /CNW/ - Half (48 per cent) of Canadian businesses said they were unprepared for the immediate technological changes necessitated by COVID-19, according to a recent survey by OVHcloud in conjunction with data service solutions company Maru/Blue, with 48 per cent concerned they will need to maintain long-term remote operations.
In fact, only a third of companies (32 per cent) feel 'very confident' in their ability to seamlessly scale cloud capabilities for the new realities of work. And while most organizations (90 per cent) would of course like to speed up their digital operations, only 32 per cent feel very confident they can. According to the survey, two thirds (66 per cent) of businesses surveyed believe that the impact of COVID-19 on their organization would have been less severe if they had had a more robust digital strategy in place to manage online operations.
"Many Canadian organizations need immediate support in digitizing their business for the new realities of the modern workforce," explains Stéphane Malouin, Sales Director Americas at OVHcloud, a global cloud provider with a Canadian data centre in Beauharnois, Quebec. "What holds true is that the pandemic was a sure indication that businesses not only need to, but want to, optimize their online presence while better protecting and managing their data."
In addition to expressing regret when looking back, these companies also lack confidence about the future. Those in Ontario (73 per cent) were particularly likely to agree that a digital strategy would have minimized the immediate COVID-19 impact, while businesses based in Quebec were less likely to agree (53 per cent). Those in British Columbia were less likely to have the right infrastructure in place (32 per cent).
When it comes to cloud operations, only one in three Canadian businesses (33 per cent) strongly believe their cloud service provider is prepared to help them shift workloads to the cloud. For companies with under 100 employees, 23 per cent do not think their IT team has the necessary experience to manage, or use, cloud services. Four in ten companies (40 per cent) also worry their organization lacks the proper IT infrastructure to manage hybrid cloud or multi-cloud operations and that they do not have the resources to speed up their digital strategy (38 per cent).
When it comes to scaling up their cloud operations for the new digital world, organizations believe their greatest challenges are cyber security and privacy risks (44 per cent) and cost (37 per cent). Additionally, 58 per cent of businesses say they are concerned about security as they embrace more robust digital strategies. "There's no question about it," explains Malouin. "As organizations grow digitally so does the risk of cyber threat, prompting the practice of safeguarding sensitive information no longer a 'nice-to-have' but a 'need-to-have' in today's landscape."
Issues of data sovereignty are also top of mind for Canadians. As companies grow a dependence towards more digital services, a reliance on the proper laws and government structure for said data also exists. Despite this, only 32 per cent of respondents felt very confident that their cloud provider had the proper structures in place to respect and protect their organization's data sovereignty.
Responding to the new challenges faced by Canadian businesses, OVHcloud recently enhanced its Canadian portfolio of cloud solutions by adding web hosting offers to dedicated servers, Private Cloud and Public Cloud offerings. With a diverse set of tools, OVHcloud's offerings are easy to use and scale for a wide variety of users, ranging from small companies to large multi-faceted organizations. OVHcloud helps support professional websites, blogs, online retailers, web agencies – any project that needs the support of the cloud to launch and scale, while ensuring a Cloud Act emancipated offering for Canadian businesses.
About OVHcloud
With a strong presence in Canada since 2011, OVHcloud is a global and the leading European cloud provider operating 400,000 servers in its own 30 data centres in 4 continents. For 20 years, the Group has been leveraging an integrated model that provides full control of our value chain, from designing our servers to managing our data centres to orchestrating our fiber-optic network. This unique approach enables OVHcloud to cover, independently, the full spectrum of use cases for our 1.5 million customers in more than 130 countries. OVHcloud now offers customers latest-generation solutions that combine high performance, predictable pricing and full data sovereignty to support their unfettered growth.
SOURCE OVHcloud
Jorielle Nunag, [email protected]
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