Interview: David Cronk, SolarWinds

Which new IT technologies will reach critical mass and become dominant in 2023?

While Observability may not be the latest invention, alongside a strong monitoring strategy, it will prove decisive for IT teams looking to manage their complex and distributed hybrid IT environments proactively. Tools sprawl and ever-increasing IT complexities put performance, stability and security at risk as more things can go wrong, and no business can afford to have any one of them disintegrate in today’s economic climate.

Budget and talent-constrained IT teams will rely on the total visibility provided by single-pane observability solutions, drawing and analysing data from disparate locations in hybrid environments for early detection and continuous monitoring. We expect further enhancement by AI and ML — paving the way to semi-autonomous IT operations that are cost-effective, compliant and scalable. This frees up IT teams to prioritise resources for proactive planning and continuous optimisation of the digital experiences that differentiate their businesses.

How is the current talent shortage impacting your industry, and how will this be overcome in 2023?

The talent shortage is expected to last for a while, given the recent removal of tech jobs from the priority skills migration list. We advise our clients in ANZ to step up on skills upgrades for existing employees to cope with the shortage of advanced skillsets. Besides tech skills development, IT professionals should brush up on soft business skills like management, problem-solving and communication, extending the value they bring.

We suggest businesses consolidate tools and applications deployed as part of digitisation efforts over the last few years. During the pandemic, when survival hinged on stable digital infrastructure, having 10 monitoring solutions was prudent. Now just one comprehensive observability solution is enough. A simple, powerful and scalable solution can help businesses achieve similar business goals, but is less costly and burdensome for IT to maintain or onboard.

Will IT continue to drive organisational efficiency in a hybrid work world, and who should lead the charge (CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, etc)?

With the looming threat of a global recession, I expect conversations within the C-suite to focus on the cost-efficiencies and returns of digital investments to date. The quest for organisational efficiency would see IT teams dropping non-performing solutions while optimising those critical to hybrid work or service delivery for the business and its customers.

With IT riding at the forefront of this wave of digital change, we expect closer collaborations with leaders of all functions in a company. Business leaders must ensure operational costs are reasonable without compromising accessibility, delivery and security.

How can the technology sector build resilience into supply chain management during times of global uncertainty?

Business agility and visibility are critical components to a resilient supply chain, and IT teams will be well-positioned to deliver on both with the right observability and monitoring strategy.

Disruption at one touchpoint can often rapidly snowball and impact the performance of others. IT teams need a full-stack observability solution — that integrates AI and ML functionalities — to not only alert them and provide information issues, but also to have the capability to ‘auto-resolve’ common faults and issues, only requiring human intervention for more sophisticated events. These semi-autonomous IT operations will help companies fast forward true digitisation with a lean IT team without sacrificing organisation efficiency.

In the face of economic uncertainty, the scalability and versatility of IT solutions employed will also be of vital importance.

David is the President of International Sales and Worldwide Channels at SolarWinds, where he is responsible for accelerating the international growth of the company. Before joining SolarWinds in October of 2016, David held Senior Vice President and General Manager positions at companies including Pearson and Hewlett-Packard (HP).