IT needs to focus on ‘intelligent business strategies’ throughout 2024

Image by © Tim Sandle

What will happen to IT over the course of 2024 and what are the pressing needs for the sector. Casting his eye over the evolving landscape is Steve Leeper, VP Product Marketing, Datadobi.

Leeper sees a growing area where data becomes a central component of intelligent business strategies and robust IT systems.

Artificial intelligence

Leeper begins his analysis by considering the rate of change and take up of artificial intelligence in the sector: “As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to weave into the fabric of modern business, the year 2024 is likely to witness a surge in the demand for enhanced data insight and mobility.”

This increase in the use of AI will become bound up with company strategy, Lepper foresees: “Companies will need to gain insight into their data to strategically feed AI and machine learning platforms, ensuring the most valuable and relevant information is utilized for analysis. This granular data insight will become a cornerstone for businesses as they navigate the complexities of AI integration.”

Data mobility

A key change will be data mobility, as Leeper predicts: “The mobility of data will emerge as a critical factor, with the need to efficiently transfer large and numerous datasets to AI systems for in-depth analysis and model refinement. The era of AI adoption will not just be about possessing vast amounts of data but about unlocking its true value through meticulous selection and agile movement.

Flash storage

Another area of change is with storage. Leeper sees: “The trajectory of storage technology is also poised for a significant shift as the year 2024 approaches, with declining flash prices driving a broad-scale transition towards all-flash object storage systems. This shift is expected to result in superior system performance, catering adeptly to the voracious data appetites and rapid access demands of AI-driven operations.”

This brings with it some integration challenges: “As flash storage becomes more financially accessible, its integration into object storage infrastructures is likely to become the norm, offering the swift performance that traditional HDD-based object storage and scalability that NAS systems lack. This evolution will be particularly beneficial for handling the large datasets integral to AI workloads, which necessitate rapid throughput and scalability. Consequently, a data mobility wave may be seen, with datasets and workloads being transferred from outdated and sluggish storage architectures to cutting-edge all-flash object storage solutions. Such a move is anticipated not just for its speed but for its ability to meet the expanding data and performance requisites of burgeoning AI initiatives.”

Data management

In terms of managing data, Leeper considers: “Also importantly, in 2024, the landscape of data management will undergo a profound transformation as the relentless accumulation of data heightens the necessity for robust management solutions. According to Gartner’s projections, by 2027, it is expected that no less than 40 percent of organizations will have implemented data storage management solutions to classify, garner insights, and optimize their data assets, a significant leap from the 15 pecent benchmark set in early 2023. This trend is likely to be propelled by the relentless expansion of data volumes, outpacing the rate at which companies can expand their IT workforce, thus elevating the indispensability of automation for data management at scale.”

Other changes with data control include: “2024 is set to be a pivotal time for data management, with a shift towards API-centric architectures for meshed applications gaining traction. As customers increasingly demand that data management vendors offer API access to their functionalities, we are likely to see a mesh of interconnected applications seamlessly communicating with one another. Imagine ITSM (IT Service Management) and/or ITOM (IT Operations Management) software triggering actions in other applications via API calls in response to tickets — this interconnectedness will become commonplace. The trend towards API-first strategies will likely accelerate, driven by the desire to embed data management more integrally within the broader IT ecosystem.”

This means, says Leeper: “The development of self-service applications will flourish, enabling automated workflows and facilitating access to data management services without the need for manual oversight. This move towards a more integrated, automated IT environment is not just anticipated; it is imminent, reflecting a broader shift towards efficiency and interconnectivity within the technological landscape.”

Risk management

Lepper’s final area is with risk management, an ever present concern for businesses: “Finally, as we look toward 2024, we predict that an intensified focus on risk management will become a strategic imperative for companies worldwide. Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) practices are anticipated to receive heightened attention as companies grapple with the complexities of managing access to data, aging data, orphaned data, and illegal/unwanted data, recognizing these as potential vulnerabilities. Moreover, immutable object storage and offline archival storage will continue to be essential tools in addressing the diverse risk management and data lifecycle needs within the market.”