European Study: Operational Intelligence is Key to Managing IT Complexity
June 30, 2015

Pete Goldin
APMdigest

Share this

European organizations with the strongest operational intelligence capability are most likely to conquer the complexity of the fastest growing IT concerns, according to a new report titled Masters of Machines II, from analyst firm Quocirca, in collaboration with Splunk.

These concerns include security threats (up 25 per cent since 2013), data chaos (up 22 per cent) and poor customer experience (up 21 per cent), all of which contribute to an increasingly complex landscape for IT managers.

The reports says that progressive organizations "are turning to operational intelligence to unlock the value buried in the many gigabytes or terabytes of machine data generated by their systems each day. Those organizations that make supporting investments are better able to cope with the inevitable increases in IT complexity and more intensive security measures that are needed to deliver improved services and the desired cross-channel experience for customers."

“A post-financial crisis easing of budgetary constraints means IT departments are refocusing on delivering value to the business, including delivering better customer experience as interaction becomes reliant on multiple channels,” said Bob Tarzey, analyst, Quocirca. “Supporting this cross-channel experience results in growing IT complexity and greater volumes of machine data, which, if unmanaged, increases data chaos. However, if this data is collected and analyzed it can provide better insight through improved operational intelligence, enabling those with the capability to reap the benefits: better security awareness, higher system uptime and improved customer service levels.”

The report identifies three areas in which operational intelligence can help conquer complexity:

■ IT infrastructure complexity: The increasing use of cloud services adds to IT infrastructure complexity as systems are becoming more hybridized and organizations struggle to get equal insight into both on-premise and cloud-based infrastructure. As organizations move to more heterogeneous and complex IT platforms, they are turning to operational intelligence to provide the necessary management insight.

■ The cross-channel customer experience: With 68 per cent of organizations having a ‘high’ or ‘medium’ reliance on the cross channel experience, businesses have to deal with increased volumes of data from these channels including mobile apps, social media and sensor-based devices. Organizations that are reliant on the cross-channel experience are more likely to rely on operational intelligence to provide hard-to-gain insight into user behavior.

■ Security: The biggest and fastest growing IT management concern in both 2013 and 2015 was security threats through compromise of IT systems. While operational intelligence helps conquer complexity, it also leads to greater concerns about IT security as those with insight into the threats they face are less complacent than those who lack such insight.

The survey looked at how well prepared organizations are to cope with IT emergencies, such as system downtime, which was the number two overall IT management concern. The survey found that about 30% of organizations have no real coping strategy for downtime.

The report says: "Coping strategies make a difference; the concern about system downtime is considerably reduced when they are in-place. Using third parties makes the biggest difference; organizations that provide such services will have experienced personnel that spend each and every day dealing with emergencies. Furthermore, this will leave in-house staff freer to focus on other areas of concern such as IT innovation and improving the customer experience."

"Understanding what issues might occur, what issues have occurred, and working out how best to respond to them whilst minimizing the impact on the business, requires insight and that is provided by effective operational intelligence."

Quocirca surveyed 380 companies in the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Pete Goldin is Editor and Publisher of APMdigest
Share this

The Latest

November 21, 2024

Broad proliferation of cloud infrastructure combined with continued support for remote workers is driving increased complexity and visibility challenges for network operations teams, according to new research conducted by Dimensional Research and sponsored by Broadcom ...

November 20, 2024

New research from ServiceNow and ThoughtLab reveals that less than 30% of banks feel their transformation efforts are meeting evolving customer digital needs. Additionally, 52% say they must revamp their strategy to counter competition from outside the sector. Adapting to these challenges isn't just about staying competitive — it's about staying in business ...

November 19, 2024

Leaders in the financial services sector are bullish on AI, with 95% of business and IT decision makers saying that AI is a top C-Suite priority, and 96% of respondents believing it provides their business a competitive advantage, according to Riverbed's Global AI and Digital Experience Survey ...

November 18, 2024

SLOs have long been a staple for DevOps teams to monitor the health of their applications and infrastructure ... Now, as digital trends have shifted, more and more teams are looking to adapt this model for the mobile environment. This, however, is not without its challenges ...

November 14, 2024

Modernizing IT infrastructure has become essential for organizations striving to remain competitive. This modernization extends beyond merely upgrading hardware or software; it involves strategically leveraging new technologies like AI and cloud computing to enhance operational efficiency, increase data accessibility, and improve the end-user experience ...

November 13, 2024

AI sure grew fast in popularity, but are AI apps any good? ... If companies are going to keep integrating AI applications into their tech stack at the rate they are, then they need to be aware of AI's limitations. More importantly, they need to evolve their testing regiment ...

November 12, 2024

If you were lucky, you found out about the massive CrowdStrike/Microsoft outage last July by reading about it over coffee. Those less fortunate were awoken hours earlier by frantic calls from work ... Whether you were directly affected or not, there's an important lesson: all organizations should be conducting in-depth reviews of testing and change management ...

November 08, 2024

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 11, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) ...

November 07, 2024

On average, only 48% of digital initiatives enterprise-wide meet or exceed their business outcome targets according to Gartner's annual global survey of CIOs and technology executives ...

November 06, 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping industries around the world. From optimizing business processes to unlocking new levels of innovation, AI is a critical driver of success for modern enterprises. As a result, business leaders — from DevOps engineers to CTOs — are under pressure to incorporate AI into their workflows to stay competitive. But the question isn't whether AI should be adopted — it's how ...