RPA and AI tools are being employed to “embed intelligence into businesses and development processes to make them part of a sustainable and repeatable model that delivers value both to the customers and within the company,” said Maloberti. “Many are using AI tools to either optimize some process or to provide a personalized experience to customers. Making it part of a scalable and repeatable model is the next step in leading the competition.” Fittingly, digital and data proponents “should not think of data and AI as an appendix to business strategy, but instead as a core part of it.”
Remote Management
With the rise of automation come greater capabilities in remote management, which will be dominant architectural approaches in the year ahead. The other side of remote management is managing remote workforces—another trend that will continue to shape data management in the year ahead, as it shaped priorities over the past year. “As work keeps changing, the way we’re dealing with data is changing right along with it,” said Grant Fritchey, product advocate at Redgate Software. “We’re seeing more reliance on cloud-based, or at least, cloud-accessed, data and data management.”
Along with corporate operations becoming so highly distributed, “we are seeing a rapid acceleration across the board of remote management tools to support, secure, back up, and monitor employees who are out of the office,” said Mike Puglia, chief strategy officer for Kaseya. “But being intermittently connected to a VPN alone does not provide the accessibility. IT needs to support this new workforce though automation along with remote management.”
These technology initiatives have taken on heightened importance “as distributed workforces continue to remain the new norm and organizations are pressed to prevent a growing number of cyberattacks,” Puglia explained. “What was once easier to manage behind the corporate firewall through company-issued devices is now like the lawless Wild West.”
IT leaders can make the most of remote management, Puglia noted, by investing in integrated remote management solutions that allow IT professionals to manage both endpoints and networks from one console. This can save time and effort for both technicians and IT professionals, allowing for more efficient allocation of internal IT team resources. “Integrated remote management solutions also allow processes to be automated more easily, which saves time and makes it easier for businesses to stay compliant and secure.”