Can Australia’s infrastructure keep up with the rise of the flexible economy?

It has been almost two years since our lives were changed by the pandemic and one of the changes we've seen take place is the rise of the flexible economy characterised by a workforce now used to working from anywhere. However, the question remains as to whether Australia's IT infrastructure can keep pace with this emerging business environment.

The new flexible economy based on the anytime, anywhere workforce delivers higher levels of employee satisfaction and opens up new opportunities for businesses to recruit the best workers for available roles, regardless of the worker's physical location.

Online meetings are also changing the business culture by breaking down hierarchies, which drives more collaboration across all levels of the organisation. Offices are no longer a place where people work, becoming a hub for business and client workshops instead.

However, despite Australia's investment in technology and infrastructure — such as the NBN — a key challenge in the digitally-led flexible economy is the growing need for scalable infrastructure that can keep up with business data demands.

Australia's ability to remain globally competitive in the new economy will require high-speed connectivity and scalable data storage and management. There is a direct impact on worker satisfaction, productivity, and overall business performance when data isn't managed effectively. The explosion of data means organisations now need to be much smarter in approaching technology to store and manage data into the future.

For this reason, specialist data storage suppliers have emerged as a crucial business need in the flexible economy. This includes a new generation of data solutions designed to manage the broad data types and volumes that have come to the fore since the global shift to remote work.

The next generation of data management solutions for government and enterprises in Australia will encompass real-time analytics, driven by:

• AI
• Cloud applications and infrastructure
• Data protection, 
• Storage-as-a-Service (STaaS)
• Backup and recovery capabilities.

Data is both the new currency and the biggest organisational risk in the new business environment. The velocity of data growth will only intensify into the future, so organisations that don't act now to secure data needs will likely be unable to respond as market forces change.

The data explosion isn't a one-time event; it will remain an ongoing challenge for organisations. The answer is to adopt a comprehensive data management and security solution provided by a specialist partner that can immediately scale as business needs change.

This will help cost-effectively future-proof organisations from data overload, mismanagement, and the risk of data breaches without compromising employee satisfaction and business performance.

Ultimately, organisations that don't focus on data management now are likely to be left behind as the flexible economy continues to expand.