CIO Trends: Mid-2022 Pulse Check
In January 2022, The StrataFusion Group took some time at our Partner meeting to weigh in on the McKinsey and Gartner Group “top annual trends” reports. In May, we revisited our choices based on clients’ experiences. We think we nailed it. Of the 15 or so mentioned in the trend reports, three main areas resonated with our team: process automation & AI, infrastructure & platforms, and zero-trust security. Now, we want to share our thoughts about how they progressed.
The IT investment money followed our predictions. Computer Economics April 22 report (see link below) validates our top two choices. They report that after a relatively slow burn in recent years, more companies are now embracing artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and projects, as shown in their annual Technology Trends survey. “In the survey, AI showed impressive gains in both adoption and investment rates, compared to our survey in 2021. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) also showed impressive gains in both adoption and investment rates among our survey respondents,” their report says.
Here are our insights and conclusions:
1. Process Automation & AI – We thought this would ramp up as part of a natural progression in the past few years, and also as a result of worker shortages and remote work. Self-learning is driving reconfiguration of aspects of workforce technology. Recently the WSJ ran a big spread on CIO’s turning to supply chain automation, incorporating process automation and AI.
Our Conclusions: We see this happening, but it’s not easy and it takes time to implement. In many companies, a solid foundation of documented, standardized processes doesn’t exist, and building that adds to the delivery window and delays ability to augment with machine learning. The ROI on automating isn’t a quick win.
2. Infrastructure & Platforms – We see cloud and edge computing continuing to accelerate and agree with projections of a 30x reduction in work time for software development and analytics. But digitization and better use of more data requires major infrastructure support, and those needs will continue escalating.
Our Conclusions: CIOs should leverage hyperconverged and dynamic compute, storage and network technologies as well as IaaS. A robust architecture management platform will help address the operational aspects of availability, security, performance, economics and change. For more insight, see our “Four Key Steps to Agile Infrastructure” blog linked below.
3. Zero-Trust (ZT) Security – NIST refers to ZT as an evolving set of cybersecurity paradigms that move defenses from static, network-based perimeters to focus on users, assets, and resources. We support the approach. Instead of assuming everything behind a firewall is safe, ZT shifts the security mindset to viewing every request as if it carries a degree of risk and must be explicitly verified.
Our Conclusions: ZT philosophy is the basis of security program implementations and upgrades for our customers and is a critical culture change in this time of hybrid work and operating environments.
Moving into the second half of 2022 and onward, these three trends will be fundamental components of IT road maps, and we’d like to hear your reactions, approaches, and plans.
The StrataFusion team will continue to share topics from our Partner meetings regularly. We are here to help your team develop a strategy for success. Contact us today.
Resources and Links:
- Computer Economics Avasant research -- AI and Cloud Infrastructure Show Greatest Jump in Investment Priorities in 2022
- Four Key Steps for Agile Infrastructure
Author:
The StrataFusion Team 2022