Digital transformation and the shift to hybrid working are unlocking new revenue opportunities for businesses, driving operational efficiencies, and improving employee experiences. But for IT teams, the two trends are also bringing a range of challenges.
First, IT teams must manage ever more decentralised networks that extend to anywhere an employee can connect to corporate systems with a device. Ensuring performance, uptime, and security has never been more of a challenge.
Second, greater digitalisation brings with it exponentially more data. It’s thought that in 2021 almost 10 exabytes of new data was generated (with one exabyte equivalent to approximately 25 billion DVDs). By 2025, the volume of data created, captured, copied, and consumed worldwide is forecast to increase to more than 180 zettabytes from a 2020 base of 64.2 zettabytes.
To store and manage huge volumes of data effectively, organisations need to be able to monitor infrastructure availability and performance around the clock. Without tools to manage rapid data growth or the ability to scale their internal teams, businesses may find they’re unable to realise the full benefits of the digital systems.
According to Ewa Wojcik, Business Solutions Manager, at Comarch ICT, a systems integrator, this all means that a more holistic approach is IT monitoring is needed: “Regardless of business size, the days of relying on a help desk to troubleshoot technology issues is long past,” Wojcik says. “In a digital-first, distributed working environment, businesses need to pivot to always-on, high-level monitoring services provided by a Network Operations Centre”
For Wojcik, businesses should outsource their NOCs rather than build them in-house. “NOCs are a perfect use case for outsourcing,” she says. “They provide on-tap access to leading-edge systems at scale and the best technical expertise available, and all at a far lower cost than building and maintaining a NOC in-house.”
Businesses’ specific monitoring requirements will vary according to the organisation’s size and industry. According to Comarch these differences can be accommodated through one of four levels of data monitoring:
- “Data”: using automated tools to detect when a server goes offline and alert the IT team to manually investigate. This is the least expensive option and perfect for small businesses.
- “Information”: monitoring the availability, performance, and capacity of infrastructure components, enabling faster resolution. Comarch identifies this as the most cost-effective level.
- “Knowledge”: using business process monitoring to analyse historic data and enable scripts for automated, predefined repair activities. This is aimed at organisations that run a wide range of complex business processes.
- “Wisdom”: using the latest in artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict future resource consumption and potential incidents and initiate preventive scenarios. This level is intended for organisations where a minor failure can affect human life or have very serious business consequences.
As with any technology or service, IT monitoring depends on the scale, budget, location, and the nature of a company’s operations. However, all organisations have one thing in common: they can benefit from working with partners like Comarch that can tailor services to their needs and deliver the capabilities required to maintain resilience and performance in an increasingly digital world.
To read more about the four levels of IT infrastructure monitoring, download Comarch’s new white paper here.
