5 Industry IT Trends that Matter to Your Organization

After a couple of very challenging years marked by rapid change, we now find ourselves in the midst of a tidal wave of tech lay-offs. Once again, we are bracing ourselves to face new challenges and opportunities.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. I&O leaders continue to contain costs by optimizing the network infrastructure. At the same time, they try to make smart decisions around investing in innovative solutions to meet current and future business needs.

With this perspective, here are some of the trends worth considering that can benefit your organization and your ability to meet your business goals.

Observability

Observability goes beyond passive monitoring to glean insights into the state of the network infrastructure based on what is actually happening in the service delivery ecosystem. This is done by carefully orchestrating the collection, enrichment and processing of data from multiple sources across business functions, delivery silos, and infrastructure components.

When applied effectively, observability makes it possible for IT organizations to make decisions much faster. It can result in the optimized operation of the infrastructure and the business services they deliver.

Metaverse

There is much hype around the metaverse, but key aspects related to augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are here to stay. They make it possible to provide a more immersive experience when interacting online.

From a work perspective, unified communications and collaboration are poised for big changes. Collaboration has moved towards online meetings, avatars and even digital twins of offices and facilities. These tools are getting even more sophisticated as they leverage AR and VR to bridge the gap between the physical and digital workspace. This will result in greater impositions upon the service delivery infrastructure to cater to the needs of users of these services – both in the office and working remotely.

Cybersecurity

The distributed nature of the workforce is also here to stay. For the foreseeable future, a hybrid model that involves office and remote work will be the norm. Along with the increased use of edge computing and dependency on cloud-based services, comes the need for enhanced security.

Frameworks such as Secure access service edge (SASE) are increasingly coming into play to provide the kinds of network access and security needed, as organizations move from legacy VPNs to cloud-based services such as SD-WAN.

Automation and AI

Automation continues to provide the benefits associated with the removal of repetitive laborious activities. It greatly increases the efficiency of managing the infrastructure by reducing unintended errors and procedural inconsistencies.

AI seems to be everywhere these days, and AIOps continues to empower IT operations management (ITOM). Service management platforms keep getting more capable, intelligent and autonomous. The end result is increased uptime, resilience and availability of business services.

The Convergence of ITOM and ITSM

ITOM has traditionally been oriented towards the day-to-day operation of the infrastructure. IT service management (ITSM) on the other hand is the focus on the business service delivery aspects.

While there has always been an overlap between the two, modern I&O leaders are now focused on the efficiencies that can be realized by combining these capabilities more directly.

By blending user experience and performance management with infrastructure monitoring and management, it becomes possible to achieve higher levels of observability. This results in much faster decision making, reaction times, and insights that can drive superior levels of service delivery.