Sumerian discusses top trends in analytics impacting CIOs and their departments

Sumerian today released expert insight into the top IT analytics trends that will impact CIOs and their IT departments in 2012 and beyond.

• Big-Data Analytics Makes Big Data Truly Transformative for Businesses: Big data is the major technology theme for 2012, but for many firms, the question remains how to harness it to benefit their businesses. Companies maintain electronic records on everything from financial performance to customer information, but according to some estimates, they are able to use less than 5 percent of that due to the sheer magnitude, complexity and cost to process and analyse large amounts of data. This year will see the rise of big-data analytics – a host of solutions and services for firms to use to effectively and economically leverage their large datasets – giving them unprecedented insight to drive operational efficiencies, improve products and services and gain competitive edge in an increasingly crowded and fragmented marketplace. The results will be truly transformative in the way enterprises will operate.
  
  
• Journeying to the Cloud with IT Analytics: If “big data” is the new focus for 2012, “cloud computing” is the hot trend continuing through from last year. Migrating to the cloud has become the next logical step in IT evolution for many organisations – taking advantage of on-demand, scalable computing and saving cost. While the benefits of cloud computing are well documented, there are challenges too, most notably, security concerns, the time and resources it takes to make the transition and the effective ongoing management of capacity and performance levels. With the use of analytics, organisations can leverage real data to better right size, plan, migrate and successfully realise their cloud initiatives. Analytics provides a scientific basis to consider things like cost, performance and risk to ensure a cloud initiative realises the significant business benefits anticipated.
  
  
• Consumerisation of IT: In the past, organisations have frequently taken a one-size-fits-all approach to end-user technology, assigning identical devices to employees in vastly differing roles. This has resulted in wasted resources and poor productivity. In an era where consumers have ever-proliferating access to top-quality, highly mobile devices and consumer-friendly apps, firms are finally coming to terms with the fact that they need to adapt. Organisations can use analytics to better determine what their different users need to do their jobs, and then make specific recommendations to match those requirements to the available technology options.
  
  
• Strengthening Business Continuity Efforts: Companies are facing growing customer expectations for impenetrable security along with on-demand, consistent access to services. In 2012, it will be more important than ever for firms to holistically analyse their IT environment to identify areas of risk that could result in service degradation or outages, and to put plans in place to ensure business continuity in case of an unplanned event. Analytic solutions are an invaluable source of information for companies looking to strengthen their business continuity plans. Analytics can help companies identify weak points in the system and can underscore which areas, from servers to specific applications, need more investment in order to ensure performance.

“In today’s economy, it is crucial for companies to operate at peak performance and make use of all available resources in order to compete on a global level,” said Peter Duffy, CTO, Sumerian. “The trends we’ve identified highlight ways that CIOs can take advantage of new analytics capabilities to optimise their IT environment. Success starts with knowledge, and using analytic solutions to gain insight into the IT environment is the first step toward leveraging these next-generation technologies and strategies.”

>Download the full press release