IT's 3 Biggest Challenges

The Evaluator Group’s Russ Fellows has identified the so-called “big IT problems” that businesses will have to contend with over the next decade. In this piece from sister site InfoStor, Fellows predicts that while there are challenges ahead, there is also an opportunity to revolutionize how IT organizations provide and deliver information.

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“The issues outlined below are topics that Evaluator Group has engaged in detailed conversations about with both IT consumers and IT producers. Nearly every business relies on information technology, and as a result will be affected by the arrival of these changes to the IT landscape.

“The three big challenges facing information technology over the coming decade are:

• Data Center Transformation – Enabling businesses to efficiently manage and deploy IT
• Data Analytics – Deriving value and business insights from data that is captured
• Integrated Data Management – Intelligently managing data placement, protection and archiving

“Solving these challenges will require significant technology, business, and operational expertise. One of the reasons why these problems are proving difficult is that existing technologies cannot solve these issues cost efficiently. In some cases, the technology required is still emerging and will require integration with existing products and processes.

“Solving business challenges will require new technologies that are now emerging. Data center transformation, data analytics and integrated data management all require technologies that optimize cost and performance, while enabling massive scale and security. Solving these challenges has been attempted in the past with various degrees of success. However, the scope and scale of the problems have outgrown the capabilities that existing technologies are able to deliver.

“Next generation solutions will require multiple technologies in order to be successful. Convention says IT departments should standardize and consolidate their equipment in order to improve management efficiencies. Next, they should virtualize components in order to improve efficiency without adding to management complexity. With these moves, it is possible to create standard business catalogs of services offerings at specific quality and price levels. Finally, these services can be integrated into ongoing operations through automation in order to maintain efficiencies and productivity gains.

“The three areas outlined will certainly not be the only challenges within IT. However, these are the topics that we feel have the potential to revolutionize how IT organizations provide and deliver information and how people consume and leverage that information within both personal and business settings.”

For more, read "The Next Decade: Solving the Big 3 IT Problems" at InfoStor.

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