Software intelligence company, Dynatrace, today announced– of 800 Chief Information Officers (CIOs) – including 50 in Singapore, which reveals that digital transformation, migration to the enterprise cloud and increasing customer demands are creating a surge in IT complexity and the associated costs of managing it, according to the findings of an independent global survey – 2019 Top Challenges for CIOs in a Software-Driven, Hybrid, Multi-Cloud World .
Technical leaders around the world and in Singapore are concerned about the effect this has on IT performance and ultimately, their business, according to the report commissioned by Dynatrace.
Singaporean CIO responses captured in the 2019 research indicate that the threat to the existence of their business (62%) and reputational damage (55%) are among the biggest concerns as businesses in Singapore transform into software businesses and move to the cloud. Furthermore, as CIOs struggle to prevent these concerns from becoming reality, IT teams in Singapore now spend 33% of their time dealing with digital performance problems – an increase from 30% in 2018, costing businesses an average of $3 million annually, compared to $2.5 million in 2018; an increase of 20%. To combat this, 94% of Singapore CIOs say AI will be critical to IT’s ability to master increasing complexity.
Findings of the 2019 global report include:
Software is transforming every business
Every company, in every industry, is transforming into a software business. The way enterprises interact with customers, assure quality experiences and optimize revenues are driven by applications and the hybrid, multi-cloud environments underpinning them. Success or failure comes down to the software supporting these efforts. The pressure of this “run-the-business” software performing properly has significant ramifications for IT professionals.
• 62% of Singapore CIOs fear there could be a threat to the existence of their business if they are unable to manage IT performance.
• As complexity continues to grow, 84% of CIOs say it could soon become extremely difficult to manage performance efficiently.
Enterprise “cloud-first” strategies increase complexity
Underpinning this software revolution is the enterprise cloud, allowing companies to innovate faster and better meet the needs of customers. The enterprise cloud is dynamic, hybrid, multi-cloud, and web-scale, containing hundreds of technologies, millions of lines of code and billions of dependencies. However, this transformation is not simply about lifting and shifting apps to the cloud, it is a fundamental shift in how applications are built, deployed and operated.
• The majority of CIOs are already using or are planning to deploy microservices (90%), containers (88%), serverless computing (88%), PaaS (88%), SaaS (9%), IaaS (94%) and private cloud (96%) in the next 12 months.
• The average mobile or web application transaction in Singapore crosses 38 different technology systems or components. This brings an inherent increase in IT complexity, making it harder for organizations to manage performance.
The age of the customer increases pressure to deliver great experiences
We are squarely in the age of the customer, where high-quality service is paramount due to the ease with which customers will try competitive offerings and share their experiences instantly via social media.
The research highlights the extent to which businesses are struggling to combat IT complexity that threatens the customer experience, with CIOs revealing:
• On average, organizations have suffered five IT outages where user-experiences, business revenues or operations were impacted in the last 12 months.
IT teams are feeling the strain
Digital transformation, migration to the enterprise cloud and increasing customer demands are collectively putting pressure on IT teams, who continue to feel the strain, especially as it relates to performance. Revealing the extent of this dilemma, key findings of the research also show that:
• A large majority of Singapore CIOs (80%) say they do not have complete visibility into application performance in cloud-native architectures.
• 86% of CIOs are frustrated that so much time is spent setting up monitoring for different cloud environments when deploying new services.
• IT teams now spend around 33% of their time tackling performance problems.
CIOs look to AI for the answer
Exploring the potential antidote to these challenges, the research further reveals that 94% of CIOs say that they believe AI will be critical to IT’s ability to master increasing complexity.
“As complexity grows beyond IT teams’ capabilities, the economics of throwing more manpower at the problem no longer works,” said Bernd Greifeneder, founder and CTO, Dynatrace. “Organisations need a radically different AI approach. That’s why we reinvented from the ground up, creating an all-in-one platform with a deterministic AI at the core, which provides true causation, not just correlation. And, unlike machine learning approaches, Dynatrace does not require a lengthy learning period. The Dynatrace Software Intelligence Platform automatically discovers and captures high fidelity data from applications, containers, services, processes, and infrastructure. It then automatically maps the billions of dependencies and interconnections in these complex environments. Its AI engine, Davis™, analyses this data and its dependencies in real-time to instantly provide precise answers – not just more data on the glass. It’s this level of automation and intelligence that overcomes the challenges presented by the enterprise cloud and enables teams to develop better software faster, automate operations and deliver better business results.”
To download the 2019 global report “Top Challenges for CIOs in a Software-Driven, Hybrid, Multi-Cloud World” please visit https://www.dynatrace.com/global-cio-report/. This report is based on a global survey of 800 CIOs in large enterprises with over 1,000 employees, conducted by Vanson Bourne and commissioned by Dynatrace. The sample included 200 respondents in the U.S., 100 in the UK, France, Germany, and China, and 50 in Australia, Singapore, Brazil and Mexico respectively.
