COVID-19: Driving platform resiliency operations and infrastructure

May 8, 2020

Outmaneuver uncertainty with a durable business model

With the enormous number of people working from home and spending more time online, day and night, COVID-19 is accelerating the shift to digital. This demand for digital resources is stressing the systems of many software and platform organizations and inhibiting their ability to deliver services with quality and reliability.

To put this into perspective, since the start of the outbreak, there’s been a greater than 60 percent increase in remote working in the US alone¹, TV streaming services have seen 85 percent growth², and demand for video conferencing has surged³ as consumers adopt them as their main source of communication with the outside world.

As digital becomes the new normal, now is the time for enterprises to build a durable operating model that can meet the demands of an uncertain future.

(Sources: ¹Pew, ²Variety, ^3-4AppAnnie)

Four key areas to navigate this new digital world:

Prepare for new surges & choppy demand

Enable your enterprise to manage new levels of demand and increased volatility to help ensure business continuity.

Build a nimble product operations organization

Create a stable and resilient operations organization to increase product loyalty in the long term.

Prepare your infrastructure value chain for global

Address current disruptions and strengthen resiliency in preparation for future value chain risks and a new normal.

Align your organization to deliver trust

Improve both the reality and perception of trust and safety in your business.

View All

1. Prepare for new surges and choppy demand

>50_%

increase in total messaging across Facebook platforms in just one month across countries hardest hit by the virus.⁵

300_%

increase in traffic for marriage applications via Alipay in Wuhan after lock down ended, temporarily collapsing the site.⁶

775_%

surge in users of Microsoft Teams in Italy, with overall users up to 44M/day.⁷

20M

recorded concurrent Steam players using the platform in March 2020.⁸

Unexpected surges in demand can lead to unreliable service. Manage spikes in demand – both in the short and long term – to adapt to and embrace a “new normal” and help ensure future business continuity.

NOW: Anticipate needs and identify flexible solutions to meet them.

NEXT: Use predictive analytics to reorient future responses to an unpredictable future.

(Sources: ⁵Facebook, ⁶Business Insider, ⁷Reuters, ⁸The Verge)

2. Build a nimble product operations organization

94_%

decrease in Uber rides, driving a business shift to UberEats which saw a 10x increase in customer sign ups.⁹

~90_%

of Classpass’ gym partners that have indefinitely closed prompting an influx of live streaming classes.¹⁰

Major shifts in customer needs require the adoption of creative solutions to increase product stickiness in the long term. Establish a more agile operating structure that can quickly adapt to changing customer needs and industry shifts.

NOW: Proactively manage product portfolios, enable new ways of working and optimize workforce planning to respond to sudden market shifts.

NEXT: Design and build the future operating and technology infrastructure to maximize flexibility and resilience.

(Sources: ⁹Business Insider,¹⁰CNN)

3. Improve infrastructure value chain resiliency

Significant disruptions in manufacturing supply chains affect a large majority of organizations¹¹:

~75_%

reported supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19 related transportation restrictions.

2X+

lead times as compared to the end of 2020 for 57% of surveyed companies.

~62_%

are experiencing order delays from China.

>44_%

do not have a plan in place to address supply chain disruptions.

Disruptions in cloud & data centers will affect the ability to meet consumer demand:

Supply chain disruptions

Global server shipments are expected to decline by ~10% in Q1 due to supply disruptions.¹²

Impacts to infrastructure

Facebook halted data center construction across the US and abroad due to COVID-19 impacts.¹³

Cloud capacity issues

Microsoft is experiencing cloud capacity issues due to sudden surge in demand and other COVID-19 related disruptions in their supply chain.¹⁴

View All

The COVID-19 crisis has drastically upended activities across the value chain, from supplier networks to the customer delivery experience. Address current disruptions and strengthen resiliency in the value chain to meet global demand.

NOW: Repurpose supply chain capabilities, harness infrastructure planning and proactively manage digital network fluctuations.

NEXT: Learn from today’s stress-points to dynamically build a more intelligent and adaptive supply chain using analytics and simulation capabilities.

(Sources: ¹¹ISM, ¹²DigiTimes, ¹³AC&T, ¹⁴ZDNet)

4. Align your organization to deliver trust

667_%

rise in global phishing activity since January 2020.¹⁵

Many organizations seem to be facing an increase in security issues and malicious attacks related to the pandemic. Platforms play an essential role in validating posts, official directives and products, and serve as a trusted advisor and reliable source of information during times of need.

NOW: Proactively prevent and remediate likely threats, predict new hotspots and collaborate with others to communicate threat intelligence.

NEXT: Harness digital tools and capabilities to deeply embed threat awareness and remediation across operations and product lifecycles.

(Source: ¹⁵TechRepublic)

Coronavirus & business operations: the future is in software & platforms

COVID-19 has brought into sharp focus the need to continuously plan for future scenarios – and model the risks they may create. Software & Platforms companies need to replace reactive and siloed approaches with capability that spans across the enterprise to up their “resilience quotient” – a next-generation quantitative assessment that feeds ongoing operational strategy using multiple signal sources.