Clear goals hampered by execution complexities

New research on the investment priorities of Australian infrastructure leaders has identified their top goals as modernising and simplifying tech¹  – with Software-Defined Networking (SDN) emerging as the number one networking and storage investment priority². 

In the increasingly complex hybrid Gen-AI world, infrastructure leaders need the unparalleled network control, connectivity, and security that the SDN approach delivers. So, what’s stopping the shift? Let’s take a look at the top 10 barriers to execution for Australian infrastructure leaders – across lack of funding, people and technology.​​​​​

Lack of funding is the #1 barrier

Despite higher overall infrastructure budgets of CIOs, CISOs and CDAOs, infrastructure leaders acknowledge their current budgets aren’t enough to fund their modernisation imperative.  With competing organisational priorities in challenging economic conditions, make a compelling investment case to the C-suite and other budget decision-makers by:

• highlighting non-negotiable spend on regulatory and compliance-led obligations
• using the opportunity of SDN migration to build critical FinOps maturity and boost cloud cost visibility
• quantifying the hidden costs of technical debt that weigh down all organisational silos.

Cloud economics models recommend CIOs and IT leaders partner with CFOs to build a business case that creates a financial narrative to support modernising legacy systems through SDN projects. Your CFO will play a significant role in enabling SDN – lock in their support by communicating the benefits they will realise across forecasting, reporting and cost visibility.

5 of the top 10 barriers relate to people

Its unsurprising that half of the top 10 list of barriers to execution relate to people:

• lack of organisational cyber awareness
• insufficient support from other executives
• lack of available talent
• limited ability to form cross-functional teams
• user resistance to change.
   

Creating cross-functional teams is key to sharing responsibility and accountability across departments. Take a strategic approach and partner with:

• CHROs to address resistance to changes
• CISOs to maximise cyber awareness
• CFOs to demonstrate the value of FinOps
• other executives with competing priorities and a shared goal.​​​​

The challenge of updating legacy systems and reducing technical debt

Despite being a top four priority for investment by Australian infrastructure leaders, updating legacy systems and reducing technical debt remain significant barriers to execution. With outdated technologies, flaky patches, and incomplete documentation, legacy systems can accrue technical debt in the form of:

• security risks
• business inefficiencies
• stalled innovation
• high maintenance costs.

More than one-third (37%) reported that a lack of knowledge inhibits their ability to manage cloud costs and value³. Organisations that are highly competent in eliminating technical debt drive modernisation 4x faster.

Bridging this knowledge gap relies on increasing visibility. Get the attention of C-suite and other decision-makers by honing in on the hidden costs of legacy systems and highlighting opportunities for SDN to simplify, optimise and reduce costs.

Moving forward, adopt a life cycle-driven approach to managing organisational technical debt by assessing infrastructure fitness regularly to ensure tech modernisation remains front of mind.

Simplify and modernise with NEC’s Software-Defined Network solution

Leave behind your IT complexity – and the manual configuration, lack of visibility and scalability that comes with traditional network solutions. NEC’s SDN solutions help organisations manage intricate environments and adapt to changing expectations.

NEC is a Cisco Multinational Gold Partner with a Secure Campus Access designation and proud to be only the second Australian partner to have received Cisco’s Secure Access Designation for its SDN solution.

Get in-house support for investing in SDN and Secure Networks.
 

^[1] The role of Australian infrastructure leaders in driving tech modernisation – ADAPT Research 2024

^[2] Categorised investment priorities for Infrastructure leaders – ADAPT Research 2024

^[3] The role of Australian infrastructure leaders in driving tech modernisation – ADAPT Research 2024