IT Monitoring Outlook for 2024
With 2024 around the corner, key business functions and emerging technologies are set to drive prolonged transformations in the IT monitoring landscape. Here are some key forecasts from Paessler, the monitoring experts for IT infrastructures and networks, for the IT landscape in 2024:
1. The importance of physical IT infrastructures will grow as cloud adoption soars.
Looking ahead to 2024, change will remain the only constant as businesses increase the number of systems in their IT networks. Improved visibility and greater levels of control across IT infrastructures will become progressively more important in this backdrop. Customisation will also become essential in the months to come as the rate at which things change accelerates.
It’s impossible to keep up with every new product launch in today’s age of technological innovation. That’s why the ability to extend the capabilities of existing products is critical. True, cloud-first strategies make sense and have a clear appeal, but it is important to avoid getting swept up in the ‘new trend’ tide and forget the fundamentals. Here, the importance of physical IT infrastructure cannot be overstated - we connect to the cloud via a wire and a box, so cloud migration makes physical infrastructure even more important than it used to be. It’s not enough to look at IT systems and their components in isolation, physical aspects of IT environments will require careful attention too.
2. Cyber threats: it’s not a zero-trust strategy unless it extends to your products.
IT is the central nervous system of every business today. With everything being connected to a network, businesses really have no choice but to deploy capable security frameworks for their systems. As cyber-attacks grow in scale and sophistication, the impact for IT networks is clear - any security strategies, including but not limited to Zero Trust, will need to align and perform with the deployed products and solutions. This will be especially important given that businesses will continue to expand their capabilities next year as they look to retain talent and continue evolving hybrid work models. As IT becomes increasingly fundamental, more data will be generated and processed, and more vulnerable IT landscapes will become. As a result, extending a Zero Trust approach to the products you use will be key.
It’s no longer enough for IT managers to simply deploy software and put their faith in it. Landscapes are ever-more complex, and leaders will need ways to gain an ‘umbrella overview’ across their legacy infrastructure, cloud systems, and OT environments. With this in place, decision-makers can rest easy knowing they are one step ahead of cyber-criminals, even in potentially unpredictable environments.
3. Observability will improve customer experiences.
We will enter unchartered territory next year as businesses look to expand enterprise capabilities with ‘observability’. The reality is that most IT managers already have existing predictive monitoring software in place. But observability can add to those existing predictive monitoring capabilities by allowing managers to understand the deeper connections between their systems. Monitoring enables us to look at potential areas where common issues could occur while observability looks at the unknowns.
IT managers who are able to look at extending existing system capabilities even as they firefight everyday issues will stay one step ahead of the competition. An IT-focused business is an innovative business and one that can adapt to changing customer needs. Transparency is going to be a key competitive differentiator here as it will offer a complete overview of communications with customers like never before. A transparent IT team is happy to share insights with non-technical people as they understand it – they in turn can then use it for self-service.
4. An AI-Human hybrid will mean the best of both worlds.
With IDC seeing 80% CIOs harnessing AI by 2028, it’s important to remember that technology exists to empower IT administrators, not to take over their jobs. The human administrator is the most intelligent part of any system. Whilst monitoring software will provide improved and sharper suggestions, the experience and discretion of IT managers is what will help maximize value delivery out of new technologies and not the other way around.
5. IT Monitoring will become key to ESG practices.
At Paessler, we see sustainability emerge as one of the top three priorities for businesses in the ASEAN region over the next three years. As ESG audits and reports become more commonplace, enterprises will need to be able to justify the environmental costs of business processes. Leaders will want to know how they can take a more forensic approach with their systems and strike a balance between performance and functional power. Monitoring will be enormously beneficial in answering these questions as it can help organizations to understand exactly what resources are being consumed, what benefits are being provided, as well as areas for possible reduction. Through system snapshots and reform points, IT managers can understand the carbon footprint behind every process, and whether appropriate categories for data backup are in place. IT monitoring can also throw light on the metrics needed to truly understand performance across categories.
