The technology mentioned as most likely to help IT professionals reach these goals – cited by 86 percent of respondents – is in-memory database technology (see Figure 3, “In-Memory Leads the Way in Business Decision-Making Value”). Among its benefits are the abilities to quickly process large volumes of data of many types and from multiple sources and to provide real-time information.
The three highly regarded technologies – each of which received almost identical rankings, also reveal growing business needs for both advanced insights and real-time delivery of information in a user-friendly format. These include:
- Self-service reporting and analytics tools.
- Predictive analytics.
- Information dashboards.
Applications leveraging big data and the Internet of Things scored almost as high in their value in supporting decision-making as the tools focused on analytics and information delivery.
IT respondents expect little change in the importance of these technologies in the next two years. Again, this indicates their belief that the drivers of complexity will not ease any time soon and that the technologies required to manage complexity more effectively are available today.
MORE TO COME
These findings are a preview of a more complete analysis of the servey results to be published in early summer 2015.The final report will drill deeper into the results to understand which industries and company sizes are most affected by complexity, as well as the differences in views based on a respondent’s role, title and region. This more detailed report will include, for example, answers to the following questions:
- Do the causes, impacts and solutions to IT complexity vary based on roles.
- Is there a correlation between those groups most successful at managing.
Commentary and analysis from leading consultants, analysts and academics will be featured, as well.
Robert L. Scheier is a veteran technology editor and writer who has held senior editing positions at PCWeek (now eWeek), VARBusiness and Computerworld.
This research project was funded by a grant from SAP.