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Intelligent Infrastructures: Unlocking the digital business

Posted on by Panagiotis Tsarchopoulos

Intelligent-Infrastructures-Unlocking-the-Digital-BusinessAccenture published a report about what makes intelligent infrastructures and how they can deliver value to your business. The report imagines a future where IT infrastructures monitor themselves, are able to predict and respond to future business needs and can protect and heal themselves automatically. Moreover, it examines how intelligent infrastructures would unlock the agility in your organization, creating competitive advantage and – ultimately – higher performance.

According to the report, an intelligent infrastructure is designed to:

  1. KNOW when extra capacity is needed, and even predict when that capacity might be required again.
  2. OPTIMIZE services by moving applications and processes to different providers across a hybrid IT environment based on cost effectiveness.
  3. SENSE a problem that arises and even take steps to fix the problem itself.
  4. AUTOMATICALLY CONFIGURE unified communications for employees and secure connectivity to the core enterprise.

Accenture believes that an intelligent infrastructure has six primary capabilities:

FIGURE 1: An intelligent infrastructure lays the foundation of the digital business.
FIGURE 1: An intelligent infrastructure lays the foundation of the digital business.
  1. Automates and orchestrates processes and applications, and configures the dynamic infrastructure requirements.
  2. Learns to see patterns, then predicts needed capacity.
  3. Monitors infrastructure components, provides alerts and self-heals.
  4. Analyzes infrastructure services, using different providers to optimize cost and performance.
  5. Automatically configures and connects devices and desktops securely.
  6. Proactively analyzes security threats and patterns to preempt risk.

In three phases’”automation and orchestration; service orientation; and intelligence’”an infrastructure moves from being reactive to proactive to predictive.

FIGURE 3: After achieving basic standardization and consolidation in their infrastructure, companies move from automation to intelligence along a three-phase path.
FIGURE 2: After achieving basic standardization and consolidation in their infrastructure, companies move from automation to intelligence along a three-phase path.

The report concludes that the value of an intelligent infrastructure is measured not simply in IT capabilities, but in the new business outcomes made possible:

  • A more flexible and agile business
  • The ability to serve customers more effectively
  • Better support for collaboration
  • More predictable cost reductions

More info

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