eBook
The Path to Digital Transformation:
Where Leaders Stand in 2023
By Insight Editor / 17 Feb 2023 / Topics: Data and AI Cloud Digital transformation Cybersecurity
By Insight Editor / 17 Feb 2023 / Topics: Data and AI Cloud Digital transformation Cybersecurity
Take an in-depth look at the results from our survey, conducted by Foundry, to better understand how current trends across the IT industry are impacting decisions made by business leaders and what they’re doing to advance digital transformation.
Our annual Insight-commissioned Foundry survey revealed that organizations are recognizing immense opportunity to advance digital transformation in the name of innovation. This is being done through improving, expanding and building on the solutions they have in place.
In fact, the #1 technology initiative for the next 12 months is optimizing existing IT infrastructures through better monitoring and management, cited by half of all respondents.1 This is also the initiative expected to drive the most impact for innovation and revenue generation.2
Continue reading to discover top challenges on the digital transformation journey and how leaders intend to move forward with optimization in pursuit of business innovation.
The most pressing question for leaders right now is “What does it take to thrive?” In this unique era of transformation, technology as a business agenda is front and center. This means:
All of this is influencing how companies are deciding to move forward. The result is that optimization is taking priority, and it’s focused in three key technology areas: data and application initiatives, platform performance and security integrations.
All of this is influencing how companies are deciding to move forward. The result is that optimization is taking priority, and it’s focused in three key technology areas: data and application initiatives, platform performance and security integrations.
The data shows: Transformation in these core areas will be the key to unlocking meaningful business innovation in the near future.
Data tops this year’s priority list, having become more crucial to business success and more challenging to handle. Key players know data should be delivering business value, but half say theirs isn’t delivering the value it could be,4 and 39% say challenges with governance is the main reason why.5
Source: Foundry6
Source: Foundry7
More efficient, impactful data use is a primary priority for organizations as successful market leaders implement analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other advanced data use cases for improved operations and experiences.
Moving toward that goal will require implementing new governance strategies to optimize the data and infrastructures already in place.
Source: Foundry8
AI is gaining traction as a means to drive value from business data — the majority of respondents report using AI for this reason:
Source: Foundry9
Applications are a crucial element in the digital transformation journey. Legacy apps lead to poor user experiences, performance issues, management challenges and more, making application modernization a must on the path to innovation.
Modern platforms follow data as a priority. Organizations are planning to increase cloud adoption (most notably in the form of multicloud) and to modernize legacy infrastructure. Based on our research, we believe this expansion and modernization is tied to the need for more advanced data and analytics capabilities.
The most challenging aspect of digital transformation is technology (47%).13
More than half (54%) of data at respondents’ organizations, on average, resides in a public or hybrid cloud.15 And as data volumes continue to grow, multicloud has become the status quo, with nearly all (91%) organizations relying on multiple public cloud providers.16
But despite embracing multicloud and hybrid cloud strategies, many organizations still struggle with issues like integration, security and performance.
Source: Foundry17
Source: Foundry18
While the majority (78%) of organizations intend to leverage more than one cloud provider over the next 12 months, it seems many are considering moving certain workloads back on-premises in pursuit of further optimization:
Definition: The measure of the cost of reworking a solution caused by choosing an easy, yet limited, solution
One of the most important findings of this year’s survey is that technical debt now ranks as the #3 challenge to digital transformation — up from #6 in just one year.20 These findings highlight the impact of relying on quick fixes or shortcuts in IT modernization.’
How will leaders facing technical debt get out of this position? While survey data does not explicitly indicate respondents’ plans for handling technical debt, it does show that roughly half of organizations surveyed intend to increase the use of third-party services within the next year, as well as delay some IT investments due to budget and strategy shifts.22
Cybersecurity is a constant undercurrent in IT conversations, so it’s no surprise that it, too, tops the list. The three big security goals for the year are threat detection, threat response and user awareness/training.23 For context, more than half of respondents reported a security breach in the last year, and nearly half of respondents reported taking a week or more to recover.24
Has your organization been impacted by a cybersecurity breach in the last 12 months?
Length of time to recover from most recent cybersecurity breach (among those who have experienced a breach)
Source: Foundry25
Source: Foundry26
Source: Foundry27
Securing the future
As organizations begin to grasp the critical nature of having security integrated throughout all aspects of the business, cybersecurity priorities for the next 12 months are primarily focused on detection, resolution, and prevention of breaches and incidents, though other focus areas include improved experiences and compliance.
Source: Foundry28
When it comes to innovation, IT skills and knowledge gaps are still the #1 obstacle (45%).29 And in a volatile market environment, gaps can’t be ignored. Perhaps that’s why more than half of respondents intend to increase their use of third-party services in the next year.
When you’re ready to accelerate your path to innovation, Insight can help.
Insight can help. We help clients seize opportunity and mitigate transformation risks, enabling them to adapt and compete. We do this by helping them build, adopt, connect, automate and secure modern platforms. This empowers innovation and supports modern applications and advanced data and AI capabilities.
Citation
1 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
2 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 24. Commissioned by Insight.
3 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 24. Commissioned by Insight.
4 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
5 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
6 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
7 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
8 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
9 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
10 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
11 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
12 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
13 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
14 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
15 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
16 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
17 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
18 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
19 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
20 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
21 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
22 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
23 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
24 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
25 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
26 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
27 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
28 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
29 MarketPulse Research by Foundry Research Services. (January 2023). The Path to Digital Transformation: Where Leaders Stand in 2023. Slide 23. Commissioned by Insight.
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