Don’t turn a blind eye to observability, say government IT professionals (Guest blog by SolarWinds)
When it comes to digital transformation, the large projects are the headline grabbers. The recent publication of the government’s roadmap for digital and data for 2022 – 2025, for example, is an ambitious blueprint that rightly recognises the role technology can play in delivering public services.
If there’s any doubt about what the government is looking to achieve, this quote from the paper says it all: “When people order their groceries, book a holiday, or check their bank accounts, they expect and receive a seamless and easy experience. The same should be true of government services.”
Hybrid IT leads to more complexity
You can’t fault the ambition or aspiration. But at the same time, you can’t underestimate the task ahead. The practicalities behind these ambitious plans are of increasing concern to the thousands of IT professionals who work across the public sector IT estate.
For instance, one recurring issue all public sector projects face is the mind-boggling complexity of the legacy systems accrued over decades of government investment.
At the heart of the issue is the inescapable fact many public sector systems are built around connected cloud architectures spanning public, private, on-premises, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments. Ask anyone who works in these areas, and the answer is the same: it adds a layer of complexity that’s becoming increasingly difficult to manage.
In fact, things are becoming so difficult IT professionals at the sharp end of government digital transformation projects are calling for better tools to help them manage these increasingly complex systems.
Lack of visibility damages the ability to manage IT
This is just one of the findings of the SolarWinds® IT Trends Report 2022—Getting IT Right: Managing Hybrid IT Complexity. The ninth annual IT Trends Report examined, among other things, the acceleration of digital transformation efforts and its impact on public sector IT departments.
In particular, public sector tech professionals said they were concerned the lack of visibility across their IT estate meant they were less confident in their organisations’ ability to manage IT.
Though nearly half (45%) of public sector tech professionals said adopting monitoring and management tools would help them overcome this complexity, two-thirds (67%) said they lacked the necessary visibility into the majority of their organisations’ apps and infrastructure.
For anyone involved in these projects, this has to be a worry.
When quizzed further, there’s also a concern this lack of visibility impacts their ability to conduct tasks such as anomaly detection, easy root cause analysis, and other critical processes to ensure the availability, performance, and security of business-critical applications.
Project delays are detrimental to ROI
The report—which surveyed 1,138 IT professionals across the U.S., U.K., Europe, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific—found though IT professionals are doing their best to manage with what they have, they’re increasingly calling for greater observability.
But the report doesn’t just recognise the fact visibility is essential for real oversight of increasingly complex systems. The report also highlights concerns this lack of insight could influence return on investment (ROI) by delaying the completion of projects.
In fact, nine in 10 (88%) respondents said they agreed ROI was impacted during an IT project they oversaw in the past 12 – 18 months due to increased hybrid IT complexity.
This all points to one thing: the publication of ambitious digital transformation projects must go hand in hand with an understanding those charged with carrying out these programmes need the tools to get the job done. Observability solutions can help in these situations, as the comprehensive framework provides the type of visibility needed for organisations on a path for transformation. As the complexity of hybrid IT environments evolves, so too must the tools to do the job.
Authors
Sascha Giese
Giese holds various technical certifications, including being a Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA), Cisco Certified Design Associate (CCDA), Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA), VMware Technical Sales Professional (VTSP), AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, and Network Performance Monitor and Server & Application Monitor SolarWinds Certified Professional® (SCP).