Spark predicts what 2018 will be like for Kiwi enterprises

Multi-cloud, DDoS attacks, and customer automation – what do these all have in common?

According to Spark, they some of the more prominent buzzwords in business conversations for 2018.

In the year ahead, they will offer Kiwi enterprises a range of exciting digital opportunities, and it's important for business to understand how they can gain an edge – both locally and globally.

Spark Digital's CEO, Jolie Hodson, explains why:

"Security is an area that is constantly on the move; the attacks used against corporations are always shifting, therefore the way in which we defend and respond is constantly evolving too," says Hodson.

"Whilst defences are continuously being created to identify and remediate attacks, new attack vectors are evolving which make an overarching security strategy as well as a defence in depth posture critical for all organisations."   "Each year attacks like the Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) and ransomware continues to become more prevalent. A DDoS attack is where a hacker overloads the server and prevents someone from accessing its machine or network by sending an overwhelming amount of unwanted traffic.

"Ransomware works similar to a kidnapping crime, except instead of a person it's your organisation's sensitive data kept hostage.

"Both have been around for years however we will see these attacks becoming more common year on year as they perfect their delivery techniques and organisations become more dependent on digital technologies to operate.

"The best thing organisations should do is rethink security as a service; it shouldn't be treated as an afterthought once your data has been compromised, but rather work to have an active security strategy that keeps your organisation and your client's information safe.

Hodson says cloud is now centrepiece to the digital era as its capability set deepens and broadens.

"Multi-cloud strategies will continue to emerge as businesses seek to get the best and broadest value possible from their respective cloud assets and utilisation.

"The cost of cloud will become less of a focus as businesses have started to realise that cloud deployment offers multifaceted returns on investment when used cleverly.

"New technology-sets like Blockchain will continue to demonstrate applicability to business in 2018 and begin to materialise as part of day-to-day cloud services," continues Hodson.

"More integration combinations and combined innovation efforts with Data Insights, AI, IoT and security will see cloud continue to invigorate the New Zealand economy.

"Customer support is crucial, but it can also be time constraining and costly," warns Hodson.

"As we head into 2018 tasks that are manual and repetitive will be increasingly automated so that support experiences that do require human contact can be delivered efficiently and effectively.

An example of this could be a service that offers automated, portal-based information to customers.

"So rather than waiting for written reports that are out of date by the time they are written and delivered, customers will be able to log in to access real-time data on dashboards."