However, becoming a digital business is not without its challenges, first and foremost of which, according to VMware, is the digitising of critical business applications. According to Jean-Pierre Brulard, senior vice president and GM for VMware EMEA, the number-one concern with digitisation should be the organisation’s applications portfolio, as these are what ultimately sustains the business.

“When it comes to digitising apps, the CIO faces two key challenges: firstly, how to migrate and modernise their existing apps – those built in different formats – and, secondly, establishing cloud-native apps that are agile enough to evolve to meet the needs of the new and developing markets opened up by digitisation,” he says.