SolarWinds charts Singapore concerns on cloud and hybrid IT

- Cloud computing is top transformative technology in Singapore

- Cloud computing and hybrid IT will remain IT professionals’ top priority for the next five years

- Optimising IT performance remains an elusive challenge

- Need for better integration with top leaders on IT investment priorities


SolarWinds, a provider of powerful and affordable IT management software, has found that Singapore IT professionals are prioritising investments in cloud computing and hybrid IT more than any other technology.

In its annual IT Trends Report 2018: The Intersection of Hype and Performance*, SolarWinds revealed that IT professionals are continuing to prioritise investments in cloud computing as they grapple with how to leverage the benefits of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). When considered together with independent research the findings also suggest a misalignment between the IT investment priorities of the practitioners surveyed, and their leaders.

Overall, four-fifths of IT professionals in Singapore indicated that cloud/hybrid IT and big data analytics are among the top five most important technologies to their organisation’s IT strategy today. Over half (52%) listed cloud/hybrid IT as their number one most important technology. This mirrors the SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2016: The Hybrid IT Evolution, where nearly all (92%) of those surveyed said adopting cloud technologies is important to their organisations’ long-term business success.

When ranking most important technologies today and for digital transformation over the next three to five years, as well as technologies with the greatest potential to provide productivity/efficiency benefits and ROI, IT professionals ranked cloud and/or hybrid IT as No. 1 across the board (by weighted rank). Big data analytics is ranked as the No. 2 priority for technology strategy today, as well as the technology needed for IT digital transformation over the next three to five years and the technology with the best potential to deliver the highest ROI. IT professionals ranked automation as No. 2 when it comes to technologies/management tools with the greatest potential to provide productivity/efficiency benefits.

However, the rapid adoption of new technologies has created environments that are not optimised for peak performance. Local IT professionals indicated that by weighted rank, cloud/hybrid IT is the greatest challenge when it comes to implementation, rollout and/or day-to-day performance. At the same time, nearly half (44%) think that their IT environments are not operating at optimal levels with 72% of those surveyed spending less than half of their time proactively optimising performance. IT professional respondents also cited inadequate organisational strategy (49%) as the No. 1 barrier to system optimisation.

Ultimately, to keep pace with changing environments and achieve successful digital transformation, IT professionals require new skill sets and deeper strategic collaboration with business leaders, SolarWinds said. “The narrative in today’s IT industry revolves around transformative technologies like AI, machine learning (ML), Blockchain, and more. These technologies are unquestionably important, but the results of this year’s study reveal that IT professionals are still prioritising investments in technologies that help run day-to-day operations, and choosing initiatives that deliver more immediate value,” said Joe Kim, Executive VP and Global CTO, SolarWinds.

“The SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2018 shows IT professionals are focusing in on proven technologies that deliver value today, such as the cloud, with an eye towards AI for tomorrow. This is how most IT professionals currently are optimising their environments to help unlock additional performance for their organisations.”

In terms of most important technologies and management tools to an IT organisation’s technology strategy today, AI and ML were the No. 5 and 6 priorities, respectively (by weighted rank). Looking ahead to the next three to five years, AI and ML jump to No. 3 and 4 in priority respectively (by weighted rank). SolarWinds notes that cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure are investing heavily in AI technologies and capabilities, which is an opportunity for IT professionals to leverage existing investment in cloud technologies to experiment with or deploy AI-based services.

The results of the IT Trends Survey suggest a dissonance between the views of IT professionals and their senior managers on priorities for IT investment over the next three to five years. On the weighted list of technologies that IT professionals believe are needed for an IT organisation’s digital transformation over the next three to five years, AI only just made the top five.

This contrasts with a recent global CEO survey from HFS Research, which found that AI and ML are together the No. 1 strategic priority for four-fifths of enterprise C-suites. Enterprises see AI and ML (81%) as well as process automation and robotics (82%) as important C-suite directives toward operations strategy – higher than any priority other than cost reduction. As AI and ML continue to mature, Solarwinds says IT professionals will be required to have a fundamental understanding of these technologies and their capabilities to act as an educated liaison for business leadership when it comes time to consider the benefits of adoption.

IT professionals surveyed further indicated that by weighted rank, cloud/hybrid IT is the greatest challenge when it comes to implementation, rollout and/or day-to-day performance. This is followed closely by the Internet of Things (IoT) and big data analytics. Nearly half (44%) of all IT professionals surveyed think that their IT environments are not operating at optimal levels.

Seven in 10 (72%) of IT professionals surveyed spend less than half of their time proactively optimising performance, and only one in 25 IT professionals spend 75% or more of their time doing so. This echoes findings from the 2017 SolarWinds IT Trends Report: Portrait of a Hybrid IT Organization, in which 37% of IT professionals surveyed who migrated critical applications and infrastructure to the cloud ultimately brought back/left area(s) on-premises due to security concerns, budget and performance issues.

Many IT professionals cite a lack of organisational strategy and inadequacy in areas like app strategy and infrastructure as the most common barriers to system optimisation.

Of IT professionals indicating their environments are not optimised, inadequate organisational strategy is the top barrier to achieving optimisation, followed closely by inadequate app strategy and inadequate infrastructure (by weighted rank). To achieve optimised performance and work towards a successful digital transformation, IT professionals require deeper strategic collaboration with business leaders, Solarwinds said.

Source: SolarWinds IT Trends Index. Priority technologies in Singapore. 

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The SolarWinds IT Trends Index is a dynamic web experience that presents the study’s findings by region, including charts, graphs, socially shareable elements, and additional insights into the data.

Read the SolarWinds IT Trends Report 2018: The Intersection of Hype and Performance (PDF)

*The findings of this year’s Singapore report are based on a survey fielded in December 2017, which yielded responses from 94 IT practitioners, managers, and directors across Singapore from public-and private-sector small, mid-size, and enterprise companies. The regions studied in 2018, as reported on the SolarWinds IT Trends Index, were North America, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the UK, with 803 respondents across all geographies combined.