If failure is not an option for most organizations, then why is it that digital transformation fails to meet objectives 70% of the time?

Research by McKinsey & Co. in 2019 documented this failure rate, a number that was more recently confirmed by Boston Consulting Group. This question has become more central in the minds of a number of CEOs as a global pandemic has accelerated the pace of digital change for many firms. Now, 80% of senior executives indicate they intend to accelerate digital transformation efforts.

How an organization uses technology, people and processes to reshape business operations and models has proven to be far from easy. Yet, it remains the number one topic in the information technology world, and major technology players are ready to provide advice and solutions.

“In the realm of IT, there’s no other single topic getting as much discussion as digital transformation,” said Brandon Draeger, vice president of compute product marketing at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., in an exclusive interview with SiliconANGLE. “Every organization defines digital transformation differently — creating new customer services, bringing agility to their data, unlocking new insights — and it’s going to require a path of modernization for their hardware and software. That path to modernization is really difficult.”

How enterprises can navigate the next wave of digital transformation and HPE’s role in facilitating that change will be the focus of HPE’s “Accelerating Next: Workload Optimized Solutions With An As-A-Service Experience” event, hosted by theCUBE on April 21. The event, which will kick off at 8 a.m. PDT, will feature several executives and thought leaders, including Antonio Neri, president and chief executive officer of HPE; John Chambers, founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures; Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel; and Dr. Lisa T. Su, president and CEO of AMD Inc. The event will highlight the role of HPE’s partner ecosystem in its emerging strategy, the company’s investment in hybrid cloud management and hyperconverged infrastructure, and what’s next for enterprises in the digital transformation journey. (* Disclosure below.)

Financial constraints

What makes the path to digital modernization so challenging are a couple of significant headwinds.

One involves limits in the financial capacity of firms to modernize an organization. A McKinsey analysis has suggested that companies with outdated systems could need to double current spending over five years in IT alone.

The other factor is that pursuit of effective digital transformation requires specific expertise not always found in organizations.

“There’s people on staff that do a good job with current services, such as email or websites,” Draeger noted. “But you may need AI for the next infrastructure roll out and the staff doesn’t know how to do it.”

This need for expertise and ready-made solutions such as AI offers a convenient fit with HPE’s as-a-service strategy for its portfolio, where the company’s expertise is embedded in products optimized to deliver new workloads for the business and help customers through the transformation lifecycle.

“HPE jumped on the bandwagon first,” said Glenn O’Donnell, vice president and research director at Forrester Research Inc. “Neri said two years ago everything would be delivered as a service, and while it was hard to believe at the time, they’re getting there.”

Forecast for pent-up demand

Digital transformation represents a sizable market opportunity. Worldwide spending on direct investment for digital initiatives is projected to reach $7.8 trillion by 2024.

Estimates such as these may not fully account for pent-up demand that HPE and other major technology players are seeing. A pandemic cooled the global economy, and supply chain issues have continued to cause manufacturing and delivery disruption.

However, some economists are painting a rosier picture for 2021, with some predicting that gross domestic product could return to close to 2019 levels by the end of this year.

HPE is betting that its hybrid, as-a-service strategy is perfectly positioned to take advantage of refreshed demand as the world emerges from a troubled 2020. The partnerships HPE has formed to deliver on this strategy will be a central focus for the Accelerating Next event on April 21.

“We’ve been executing this strategy for over three years now, and we’re in the right place at the right time with the right expertise to execute,” Draeger said. “We can really focus on the areas where there’s data gravity or data sovereignty that’s keeping organizations from moving to the cloud. It’s hybrid, multicloud and multi-edge.”

Livestream of HPE’s Accelerating Next event

HPE’s Accelerating Next is a livestream event, with additional interviews to be broadcasted on theCUBE. You can register for free here to access the live event. Plus, you can watch theCUBE interviews here on demand after the live event.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch the live coverage of HPE’s Accelerating Next event, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify, which you can enjoy while on the go.

Guests

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during HPE’s Accelerating Next event include Roel Sijstermans, head of IT at the Netherlands Cancer Institute; Neil MacDonald, senior vice president and general manager of Compute at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.; Alan Jensen, chief information officer and senior vice president at Salling Group; and Jim Brickmeier, chief product and marketing officer at Velocix Ltd.. Visit the Accelerating Next event page for a complete list of speakers.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for HPE’s Accelerating Next event. Neither Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: HPE