Cloud Computing: still the number one business

Cloud computing and Hybrid IT are top of the agenda, serving as an essential backbone to trends like AI and machine learning
Optimising IT performance remains an elusive challenge
Study also points to need for better integration with top leaders on IT investment priorities

SYDNEY, Australia, April 11, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SolarWinds, a leading provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, today released the findings of its annual state-of-the-industry study. The new study reveals the state of today’s IT landscape in Australia: IT professionals are continuing to prioritise investments in cloud computing as they grapple with how to leverage the benefits of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. A juxtaposition of the findings with other independent research also suggests a misalignment between the IT investment priorities of the practitioners surveyed and their leaders.

The IT Trends Report 2018: The Intersection of Hype and Performance, the company’s annual report on IT trends, explores the spectrum of today’s existing and emerging technologies and the extent to which they are disrupting IT and optimising the performance of environments as organisations progress in their digital transformation journeys.

Overall, Australian IT professionals are prioritising investments in cloud computing and hybrid IT more than any other technology – 94 percent of respondents indicate that cloud/hybrid IT are one of the top five most important technologies to their organisation’s IT strategy. While AI and machine learning are not currently the highest priorities for IT professionals, optimising cloud/hybrid IT environments creates a critical pathway to eventually deploy and capture the compelling benefits of these emerging technologies. AI took the number five spot (by weighted rank) for technologies needed for digital transformation over the next three to five years, rising 20 percent.

However, the rapid adoption of new technologies has created environments that are not optimised for peak performance: over half (53 percent) of the survey respondents indicate their environments are not optimised and 85 percent reported spending less than 50 percent of their time proactively maintaining and troubleshooting. Many IT professionals cite a lack of organisational strategy and inadequate investment in areas like user training as the most common barriers to system optimisation. Ultimately, to keep pace with changing environments and achieve successful digital transformation, today’s IT professionals require new skillsets and deeper strategic collaboration with business leaders.

“The narrative in today’s IT industry revolves around transformative technologies like AI, machine learning, blockchain, and more. These technologies are unquestionably important, but the results of this year’s study reveal that IT professionals are still prioritising investments in technologies that help run day-to-day operations, and choosing initiatives that deliver more immediate value,” said Joe Kim, executive vice president and global chief technology officer, SolarWinds. “The SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2018 shows IT professionals are focusing in on proven technologies that deliver value today, like cloud and containers, with an eye towards AI for tomorrow.”

“This is how most IT professionals currently are optimising their environments to help unlock additional performance for their organisations,” he added.

2018 Key Findings

The SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2018: The Intersection of Hype and Performance explores IT professionals’ view about what is happening in their technology worlds, and how their organisations are prioritising existing and emerging technologies. Key findings show that:

Cloud computing and hybrid IT will remain IT professionals’ top priority for the next five years as these elements serve as the backbone to trends like machine learning and AI.

The majority (94 percent) of IT professionals surveyed indicate that cloud and/or hybrid IT is the number one most important technology in their IT organisation’s technology strategy today.
When ranking most important technologies today and for digital transformation over the next three to five years, as well as technologies with the greatest potential to provide productivity/efficiency benefits and ROI, IT professionals ranked cloud and/or hybrid IT as number one across the board (by weighted rank).
- Automation ranked as the number two priority for technology strategy today, as well as the technology with the greatest potential to deliver productivity/efficiency benefits and deliver the highest ROI.
- IT professionals ranked big data analytics as number two when it comes to technologies/management tools needed for digital transformation over the next three to five years.

At the same time, IT professionals are setting their sights toward future innovation in emerging technologies like AI.

While AI did not make the top five technologies IT professionals are prioritising today, it took the number five spot (by weighted rank) for technologies needed for digital transformation over the next three to five years, rising 20 percent.
Cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services^™ and Microsoft^® Azure^® are investing heavily in AI technologies and capabilities, which presents an opportunity for IT professionals to leverage existing investment in cloud offerings to experiment with and deploy AI-based services in their organisations.

The results of the IT Trends Survey suggest a dissonance between the views of IT professionals and their senior managers on priorities for IT investment over the next three to five years.

On the weighted list of technologies IT professionals believe are needed for an IT organisation’s digital transformation over the next three to five years – while rising in importance – only just made the top five.
- This contrasts with a recent global CEO survey, which found that AI and machine learning is the number one strategic priority four-fifths of enterprise C-Suites are placing on their operations.
  - Enterprises see AI and machine learning (81 percent) and process automation and robotics (82 percent) as important C-Suite directives toward operations strategy – higher than any priority other than cost reduction (HFS Research)
- As AI and machine learning continue to mature, IT professionals will be required to have a fundamental understanding of these technologies and their capabilities to act as an educated liaison for business leadership when it comes time to consider the benefits of adoption.

While IT professionals continue prioritising cloud computing and hybrid IT, adoption of these technologies has made it challenging to optimise performance of their systems and applications.

IT professionals surveyed indicated that by weighted rank, cloud/hybrid IT is the greatest challenge when it comes to implementation, rollout and/or day-to-day performance. This is followed closely by automation and big data analytics.
Over half (53 percent) of all IT professionals surveyed think that their IT environments are not operating at optimal levels.
- 85 percent of IT surveyed spend less than half of their time proactively optimising performance, and only 1 in 50 IT professionals spend 75 percent or more of their time doing so.
This echoes findings from the 2017 SolarWinds IT Trends Report: Portrait of a Hybrid IT Organisation, in which 26 percent of IT professionals surveyed who migrated critical applications and infrastructure to the cloud ultimately brought back/left area(s) on-premises due to security concerns, budget and performance issues.

Many IT professionals cite a lack of organisational strategy and inadequate investment in areas like user training as the most common barriers to system optimisation.

Of IT professionals indicating their environments are not optimised, inadequate organisational strategy is the number one barrier to achieving optimisation, followed closely by inadequate investment in areas like user training and inadequate app strategy (by weighted rank).
- To achieve true performance and work towards a successful digital transformation, IT professionals require deeper strategic collaboration with business leaders.

To explore and interact with all of the 2018 findings, please visit the SolarWinds IT Trends Index, a dynamic web experience that presents the study’s findings by region, including charts, graphs, socially shareable elements, and additional insights into the data.

The findings of this year’s Australian report are based on a survey fielded in December 2017, which yielded responses from 125 IT practitioners, managers, and directors from public-and private-sector small, mid-size, and enterprise companies. All regions studied in 2018, as reported on the SolarWinds IT Trends Index, were North America, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, with 803 respondents across all geographies combined.

Additional Resources

Past SolarWinds IT Trends Reports

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About SolarWinds
SolarWinds provides powerful and affordable IT management software to customers worldwide, from Fortune 500^® enterprises to small businesses, managed service providers (MSPs), government agencies, and educational institutions. We are committed to focusing exclusively on IT, MSP, and DevOps professionals, and strive to eliminate the complexity that our customers have been forced to accept from traditional enterprise software vendors. Regardless of where the IT asset or user sits, SolarWinds delivers products that are easy to find, buy, use, maintain, and scale while providing the power to address key areas of the infrastructure from on-premises to the cloud. This focus and commitment to excellence in end-to-end hybrid IT performance management has established SolarWinds as the worldwide leader in both network management software and MSP solutions, and is driving similar growth across the full spectrum of IT management software. Our solutions are rooted in our deep connection to our user base, which interacts in our THWACK online community to solve problems, share technology and best practices, and directly participate in our product development process. Learn more today at www.solarwinds.com.

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Cloud Computing: still the number one business transformation priority for Aussie IT pros despite AI hype, SolarWinds survey reveals

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Cloud Computing: still the number one business transformation priority for Aussie IT pros despite AI hype, SolarWinds survey reveals

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