Posted by Mumbai: 75% of Global technologists report that the pandemic has created more IT complexity than in past, revealed Cisco AppDynamics’ new study.
Cisco AppDynamics’ new global study titled Agents of Transformation 2021:The Rise of Full-Stack Observability assessed the impact of the fast-paced digital transformation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its repercussions for global technologists.
IT complexity, according to the findings witnessed a dramatic increase triggered by urgent innovation needs, resulting into technology sprawl for global technologists.
The research validates a pressing need for full-stack observability with added business context to help technologists manage the IT estate, data insights and pick what’s most significant to their business.
The shift to digital-first business models to weather the storm and minimize the commercial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has placed technologists at the forefront of their organisations’ response.
According to this research, this forced a 3X acceleration of digital transformation projects. Unsurprisingly, technologists found themselves under considerable strain, with 89% reportedly feeling under immense pressure at work and 84% admitting to having difficulty switching off.
Furthermore, many technologists expressed feeling frustrated about work (81%) and experiencing increased levels of conflict with colleagues (63%).
The new research goes on to highlight that rapid digital transformation has added staggering technical complexity throughout IT departments, with technologists listing the following factors as key contributors:
● A new set of priorities and challenges (80%).
● Technology sprawl and a patchwork of legacy and cloud technologies (78%).
● Acceleration to cloud computing (77%).
● Multiple, disconnected monitoring solutions (74%).
This rise in IT complexity has significantly increased the amount of data created across the technology stack, from the application, through the infrastructure to the network and security.
With this added complexity, 85% of technologists state that quickly cutting through noise caused by the ever-increasing volumes of data to identify root causes of performance issues will represent a significant challenge in the year ahead.
With 75% of global technologists polled stating they are already struggling to manage overwhelming ‘data noise’, technologists are desperate for a unified solution to enable real-time visibility across the entire IT estate.
● 95% of technologists say having visibility across the whole IT estate is important.
● 96% point to negative consequences of not having visibility and insights across the whole tech stack.
Most technologists accept that the ability to monitor the IT stack is important, but a majority (92%) say the ability to link technology performance to business outcomes such as customer experience, sales transactions and revenue, will be what’s really important to delivering innovation goals over the next year.
In addition, almost three quarters (73%) fear that the inability to link IT performance with business performance will be detrimental to their business in 2021. And 96% acknowledge that the ability to connect full-stack observability with real-time business outcomes will be essential to delivering first-class digital experiences and accelerating digital transformation.
Rather than searching through the vast telemetry data volumes that come with a standard full-stack observability approach, technologists admit they need to observe what matters by applying a business lens to full-stack observability so they can surface the most impactful information quickly. This business context will enable them to make sense of what’s relevant and take action on the most transformative opportunities.
The report also highlights that while technologists are acutely aware that they need to contextualize IT performance with real-time business data. More than half (66%) do not have the resources and support they need, and 96% point to at least one barrier their organisation must navigate in order to adopt this new approach.
The stakes have never been higher for technologists and their organisations to get the necessary resources and support in place, with 75% of global technologists saying their organisation needs to connect full-stack observability to business outcomes within 12 months in order to remain competitive.
“Full-stack observability is the only way technologists can deal with the sprawling IT estate and increased complexity created by such rapid rates of innovation. But on its own, it’s just not enough, said Linda Tong, VP and GM – Cisco AppDynamics.