The State of Application Strategy 2021: Necessity is the Mother of Motivation

Organizations did not walk, they ran-with haste-from the early stages of replacing manual tasks with applications (task automation) to more mature phases that expand digitization to workflows (digital expansion) and begin to leverage data and analytics to power smarter business and operational decisions (AI-assisted business).

No matter the pace, the journey from paper-powered to digital cannot be undertaken without technology. From applications to analytics, from automation to application delivery and security, the transformation of business relies on technology. Each of these categories showed significant changes over results from 2019.

Our research has changed, too. We're still focused on understanding the impact of trends and technologies on application delivery and security (the technology formerly known as 'application services'), but we're also looking to the future, to where enterprises are going. We know the destination of digital transformation is AI-Assisted Business, but how existing and emerging technologies and tools will fit into that future is often less clear.

Well, it was less clear until we dug into the results from this year's survey.

The Future is Data-Driven

This year's research provides a fascinating look at how enterprises perceive application security and delivery technology and their role in a future driven by data. The importance of the functional capabilities of technologies that deliver and secure applications as well as the telemetry they generate cannot be overstated. More than three-quarters of respondents-all decision makers in their respective organizations-view application delivery and security technology as being important to meeting SLAs (80%) and improving the customer experience (79%).

The increasing importance placed on data was seen throughout the survey in the 52% of respondents that tagged AIOps as a technology that will have a strategic impact in the next two to five years. The relationship between AI and data should be no surprise. Without data to analyze and ultimately act upon, AIOps is reduced to a tactical, productivity-enhancing practice rather than the strategic business driver it can-and should-be.

Enterprises Firmly Entrenched in Digital Expansion

But we aren't there yet. As digital transformation progresses, we see IT evolving from supporter to enabler to partner with the business. Today, we still see IT as acting the part of enabler. An example is the lack of alignment on key aspects of protecting a digital business.

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