Virtualization and Cloud executives share their predictions for 2017.  Read them in this 9th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Contributed by Brian Wilson, Senior VP of Customer Success at Zenoss

The Top Four Enterprise IT Predictions for 2017

Move over big data, here comes artificial intelligence. And hello, Internet of Things; you've finally made it to the party. Those are just a couple of growth areas I see for enterprise IT in 2017. 

1. "Fake news" hits enterprise IT monitoring.

"Fake news" will hit the enterprises with Code Red Alerts because a glut of new technologies are being adopted in large-scale networks. Why? A limited understanding of how to deploy it effectively and how to interpret performance data correctly from all those inter-connected systems. Everyone's first question after a sleepless night is, "Was that a real event?" 

2. Artificial intelligence and machine learning heat up. 

Big data, the darling of IT predictions over the past couple of years, is now yesterday's news. This year, the story will be about how to leverage that data to turn it into knowledge. So expect to see a wealth of technology following on the heels of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) announcements around artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

3. Internet of Things grows up. 

We have heard a lot about the Internet of Things (IoT), but 2017 is the when we will start to see it come alive. Much like the 10-year cycle for cloud to be mainstream, IoT is on a long arc of acceptance, but the use cases are really starting to make sense. Cisco, AWS, Oracle, IBM and a host of smaller players all have viable IoT platforms. Watch for the concepts of IoT to be applied to real benefit in the enterprise, which will translate into improved network availability and reliability, and a better experience for end users. 

4. Technology consolidation steps up. 

From a financial perspective, there is still a lot of private equity money looking to be put to use, and from an internal perspective, there are still a number of large-scale players needing a boost to top lines to satisfy investors. As a result, expect continued large-scale mergers, acquisitions and similar financial deals throughout 2017. Consider that Slack recently announced a partnership with Google in response to the Microsoft Teams announcements. That suggests Slack might be in play. Indeed, 2017 is shaping up to be an exciting year. What remains to be seen is what enterprise IT professionals will do to take advantage of these big trends. 

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About the Author

Brian Wilson joined Zenoss in 2011 as Vice President of Services and Support and is responsible for all post sale customer-facing operations at Zenoss - from initial services engagement and deployment, to ongoing customer support and Services, account management, training, and finally to the subscription renewal process. He brings over 20 years of experience in ensuring customer success.

Brian holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Alabama at Huntsville.