The rapid acceleration of digital transformation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has caused a dramatic increase in IT complexity which resulted to a technology sprawl, according to a recent report published by AppDynamics, a part of Cisco.
The study titled, Agents of Transformation 2021:The Rise of Full-Stack Observability, also highlighted a pressing need for full-stack observability with added business context to help technologists manage the IT estate, cut through the data ‘noise’ and observe what matters most to their business.
The shift to digital-first business models to weather the storm and minimise the commercial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, has placed technologists at the forefront of their organisations’ response. According to this research, this forced a 3X acceleration of digital transformation projects.
In the UAE, unsurprisingly, technologists found themselves under considerable strain, with 90% reportedly feeling under immense pressure at work and 85% admitting to having difficulty switching off. Furthermore, many technologists expressed feeling frustrated about work (86%) and experiencing increased levels of conflict with colleagues (72%).
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The new research goes on to highlight that rapid digital transformation has added staggering technical complexity throughout IT departments in UAE, with technologists listing the following factors as key contributors:
- A new set of priorities and challenges (85%).
- Technology sprawl and a patchwork of legacy and cloud technologies (84%).
- Acceleration to cloud computing (86%).
- Multiple, disconnected monitoring solutions (85%).
This rise in IT complexity has significantly increased the amount of data created across the technology stack, according to AppDynamics.
With this added complexity, 91% of technologists in UAE state that quickly cutting through noise caused by the ever-increasing volumes of data to identify root causes of performance issues will represent a significant challenge in the year ahead.
The study also found that 97% of technologists noted that visibility across the whole IT estate is important and 98% of them point to negative consequences of not having visibility and insights across the whole tech stack.
Further into the report, most technologists acknowledge that the ability to monitor the IT stack is important, the overwhelming majority (95%) said that the ability to link technology performance to business outcomes such as customer experience, sales transactions and revenue, will be what’s really important to delivering innovation goals over the next year.
In addition, almost three quarters (83%) fear that the inability to link IT performance with business performance will be detrimental to their business in 2021.
Linda Tong, AppDynamics
Rather than searching through the vast amounts of telemetry data that comes with a standard full-stack observability approach, technologists recognise they need to observe what matters by applying a business lens to full-stack observability so they can surface the most impactful information quickly. This business context will enable them to make sense of what’s relevant and take action on the most transformative opportunities.
The report also highlights that while technologists are acutely aware that they need to contextualise IT performance with real-time business data, more than half (67%) do not have the resources and support they need, and 97% point to at least one barrier their organisation must navigate in order to adopt this new approach.
AppDynamics report further highlighted that the stakes have never been higher for technologists and their organisations to get the necessary resources and support in place. It noted that around three quarters (76%) of technologists said their organisation needs to connect full-stack observability to business outcomes within 12 months in order to remain competitive.
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“Full-stack observability is the only way technologists can deal with the sprawling IT estate and increased complexity created by such rapid rates of innovation. But on its own, it’s just not enough, said Linda Tong, vice president and general manager, Cisco AppDynamics. “Technologists have recognised that without business context, they will quickly find themselves drowning in complexity and data noise. As a part of Cisco, AppDynamics is uniquely positioned to leverage the breadth of Cisco’s domain expertise in network, application, infrastructure and security – while also providing the business context they are known for. The AppDynamics Business Observability platform will enable technologists to better prioritise and deliver the biggest impact for their business.”
