Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022. Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Leveraging Automation to support IT Infrastructure
By Andrew Sweeney, Co-founder of ReadyWorks
If 2021 and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that we need to react and adapt quickly to the changing environment. Companies already engaging in digital transformation have accelerated their plans as a direct result of the pandemic. Infrastructure managers have faced greater pressure than ever before from the increasing frequency and complexity of managing their hardware and software assets within a hybrid workforce. As the world continues to change in 2022, and industries embrace technologies which can support operations, anywhere, anytime, IT teams will continue to evolve their infrastructure to securely meet demands.
There will be a demand for highly scalable distributed asset management
The number of connected devices is set to triple by 2026 and no one is paying any attention. Enterprises are about to face one of their greatest IT challenges and are woefully unprepared. Large percentages of employees working from home on their personal computers will begin requesting that their employers provide them the hardware they need to continue working. Distributed asset management will become a major pain-point for large enterprises as they tackle the requirements of anywhere operations and the proliferation of connected devices.
Cyberattacks will cause enterprises to keep critical systems in-house
While the move to the cloud will obviously continue to accelerate, the proliferation of high profile cyberattacks will cause many enterprises to remain leery of putting their most sensitive business processes in the cloud. This will result in most large organizations maintaining a hybrid IT infrastructure with systems strategically placed in the cloud, on-prem, or at the edge as security and performance dictates.
The rise of the Digital Platform Conductor
By 2023 nearly 40% of the global population will be tracked digitally in order to influence behavior according to Gartner. This ‘Internet of Behavior’ will require the deployment of an exponentially larger number of physical IoT devices to collect and process data at the edge. This trend, coupled with the enterprise’s desire to manage physical systems with the same elasticity as their cloud systems, will give rise to a new IT Orchestration category called Digital Platform Conductors. Essentially, centralized IT infrastructure orchestration platforms that use AI and Data to control workload and data placement across the IT infrastructure stack.
Automation over outsourcing
By 2025 over 50% of the revenue of the major consultancies will be derived from service delivery that leverages automation and AI instead of just human resources. 2020 will see large consultancies, VARs, Integrators, and Outsourcers strategically moving to build, acquire, or adopt automation technologies or risk becoming non-competitive. This will represent a major shift in how IT infrastructure programs are delivered over the next several years.
Contactless Everything
Covid may be waning, but consumers and employees will remain hesitant to go back to pre-pandemic expectations when they return to physical offices and places of business. Expect to see a large push for the deployment of IT infrastructure to support contactless payment, identification, and services.
Infrastructure Resiliency
Infrastructure teams were the IT heroes of the pandemic as they moved systems and processes out of the office and into people’s homes. This upheaval has highlighted the need for infrastructure teams to be both agile and resilient in the face of unforeseen emergencies. As organizations are able to take stock of post-Covid infrastructure requirements, we predict an increase in investments which improve visibility across the stack and which enable organizations to make large scale infrastructure changes at speed.
Today’s environment is more dynamic than ever before. Keeping pace with the growing number of connected devices and IT assets will continue to be a challenge for organizations of all sizes. In 2022, businesses will continue to make investments into in the latest in intelligent automation, to empower their users and employees by ensuring compliance and security across their IT infrastructure.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew Sweeney is a co-founder of ReadyWorks. With over 20 years of international experience in technology strategy and delivery, Andrew has a successful track record with premier firms such as Prudential, Guardian, Avon, Altria, JP Morgan Chase, Salomon Smith Barney, CIT, Royal Bank of Canada, Weil Gotshal & Manges, Polo Ralph Lauren, Hess, AIG, Symantec, and Microsoft, amongst others. Andrew has led numerous large-scale IT transformation initiatives and leverages this experience to help customers deliver IT programs more efficiently while reducing cost and risk.
