AI is having a transformative impact on cloud infrastructure, with its ability to automate IT systems management, bolster security and improve data management.
However, to confront these changes, businesses will need to address the critical IT skills gap facing businesses around the world. Specifically in the UK, 2023 data highlights that 27% of workers said they lack the sufficient digital skills required for their job role, according to the Oxford Learning College.
According to the Oxford Learning College:
- 29% of workers said their lack of digital skills has limited their pay and career progression
- 58% of workers say their employer has never given them any training to help close the technology skills gap
These types of gaps also impact the wider telco industry, with 42% of telecoms businesses reporting a specialist digital or IT skills gap in the market.
With this in mind, Mobile Magazine speaks with Charlotte Webb, Marketing and Operations Director at Hyve Managed Hosting about the changing cloud infrastructure landscape and how businesses can adapt to new technology expectations and confront IT skills gaps.
Can you introduce yourself and explain your current role at Hyve?
Certainly! As the Marketing and Operations Director at Hyve, I oversee our global marketing and operational initiatives. I’m responsible for aligning our regional teams in the UK, US and Germany with Hyve’s overall growth strategy.
Prior to this role, I joined back in 2020 to lead Hyve’s marketing efforts, where I built a strategy that significantly boosted our sales pipeline and enhanced brand visibility. What drives me most is taking on challenges and achieving new goals, so naturally, I jumped at the chance to join Hyve’s marketing team.
In my current role, I’m focused on harmonising our operations across the world as we continue to expand our reach. I work closely with the founders, Jake Madders and Jon Lucas, to build business opportunities, create global strategies and plan further business expansion.
What have been Hyve’s most memorable challenges and successes in 2024?
2024 has been a real year of growth and development for Hyve as we’ve expanded our global footprint. A highlight of our journey has been the successful launch of two new regional hubs in Berlin and Austin, which has not only increased our international presence but has also opened doors to new customers and solidified our commitment to localised data sovereignty.
By establishing these new hubs, we’ve been able to deliver our brand promise of individualised experience to our German and US customers.
Operating closer to them allows us to tailor our offerings to their specific needs and preferences, ensuring a competitive edge in the global market. This personalised approach is a hallmark of Hyve, setting us apart in an industry dominated by large, generic cloud providers, so it’s been incredibly rewarding to extend this approach to new regions.
Of course, this growth wasn’t without its hurdles. Expanding into a new market like the US required building a strong team that embodies Hyve’s unique culture and values. Finding the right talent for this was an initial hurdle, as we sought individuals who not only possessed the necessary skills but also shared our passion for innovation and customer-centric approach.
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We overcame this challenge by leveraging our existing network, tapping into diverse talent pools, and highlighting Hyve’s unique culture and career opportunities to attract the best in the field.
On top of this, in early 2024, we had to navigate the changes introduced by Broadcom and our VMware partnership. To support customers facing significant price increases for their VMware infrastructure that followed soon after the Broadcom & VMware deal, we quickly developed a strategy that involved assessing each customer’s situation and individually adjusting their server use to provide more cost-effective solutions. By responding to our customers’ needs and developing solutions to reduce costs, we successfully navigated this challenging period and maintained our growth trajectory.
While the cloud market remains challenging with hyperscalers dominance and restrictive vendor behaviour, yet we have grown our headcount by over 30%, launched two new regional hubs, and experienced our strongest revenue growth to date. It’s rewarding to see our efforts translate into tangible success.
As organisations increasingly adopt hybrid and private cloud solutions, how is Hyve addressing this market shift?
We’re seeing an industry shift away from public cloud models to those that can offer more tailored advantages, such as private, hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure.
Businesses are recognising that the public cloud can present challenges such as hidden costs and vendor lock-in, and this is where our expertise as a managed service provider (MSP) shines. We consult, build, migrate, and manage cloud environments, ensuring that our customers get the right mix of resources based on their individual needs.
Hybrid solutions, for example, offer the flexibility to combine public and private cloud environments, allowing businesses to optimise performance and cost. Whether our customers are transitioning from the public cloud or integrating private solutions, we provide bespoke support rather than an off-the-shelf option.
For customers who still opt for public cloud, we help them avoid common pitfalls, ensuring they get the most out of their investment.
How do you see AI influencing customer needs when it comes to cloud infrastructure?
As we know, AI is quickly reshaping businesses’ expectations across the board. This is no different when it comes to cloud infrastructure, and many companies are still navigating how to embrace its full potential.
While cloud environments are inherently scalable and flexible, there’s often a disparity between AI readiness and actual implementation, which is why businesses need to prepare their cloud infrastructure for AI before they get ahead of themselves with possibilities. This could mean tailoring cloud infrastructure to handle heavy and diverse workloads without the need for businesses to invest in their own costly hardware, for example.
One of our US customers, a team of data scientists democratising AI, needed a customised cloud infrastructure to accommodate their complex reasoning and knowledge representation tasks. Their requirements were very different from those of a high-speed image recognition system, for example, so a flexible infrastructure was needed to ensure the company’s unique needs were met.
As customer needs continue to evolve and AI adoption varies, maintaining continuous open communication is crucial to ensure that cloud infrastructure aligns with changing AI business requirements.
One pressing challenge UK businesses face is the IT skills gap – how can the industry address this issue to ensure customer needs are met?
The IT skills gap is something 81% of UK businesses have been negatively impacted by, according to our recent IT and Tech Skills Gap Report. But there are solutions, starting with encouraging more people from a young age, especially women, to pursue careers in technology.
Diversity in the workforce is crucial – in fact, according to the Boston Consulting Group, companies with diverse management teams have reported seeing a 19% boost in revenue, since harnessing a mix of different perspectives and experiences can create a more collaborative environment that translates into stronger business outcomes.
To add to this, diverse teams should be encouraged across all departments, not just IT, so innovation becomes synonymous with the business at every level.
Key facts
- 65% of business leaders currently work with an MSP
- Of those, 90% reportedly do so to address a lack of technical talent
Where businesses lack in-house cloud expertise, the technical knowledge offered by MSPs can be useful in not only ensuring that customer needs are effectively met, but also using their expertise to help businesses stay competitive with infrastructure that keeps them ahead in the market.
