European organizations with the strongest operational intelligence capability are most likely to conquer the complexity of the fastest growing IT concerns, according to a new report titled Masters of Machines II, from analyst firm Quocirca, in collaboration with Splunk.

These concerns include security threats (up 25 per cent since 2013), data chaos (up 22 per cent) and poor customer experience (up 21 per cent), all of which contribute to an increasingly complex landscape for IT managers.

The reports says that progressive organizations "are turning to operational intelligence to unlock the value buried in the many gigabytes or terabytes of machine data generated by their systems each day. Those organizations that make supporting investments are better able to cope with the inevitable increases in IT complexity and more intensive security measures that are needed to deliver improved services and the desired cross-channel experience for customers."

“A post-financial crisis easing of budgetary constraints means IT departments are refocusing on delivering value to the business, including delivering better customer experience as interaction becomes reliant on multiple channels,” said Bob Tarzey, analyst, Quocirca. “Supporting this cross-channel experience results in growing IT complexity and greater volumes of machine data, which, if unmanaged, increases data chaos. However, if this data is collected and analyzed it can provide better insight through improved operational intelligence, enabling those with the capability to reap the benefits: better security awareness, higher system uptime and improved customer service levels.”

The report identifies three areas in which operational intelligence can help conquer complexity:

■ IT infrastructure complexity: The increasing use of cloud services adds to IT infrastructure complexity as systems are becoming more hybridized and organizations struggle to get equal insight into both on-premise and cloud-based infrastructure. As organizations move to more heterogeneous and complex IT platforms, they are turning to operational intelligence to provide the necessary management insight.

■ The cross-channel customer experience: With 68 per cent of organizations having a ‘high’ or ‘medium’ reliance on the cross channel experience, businesses have to deal with increased volumes of data from these channels including mobile apps, social media and sensor-based devices. Organizations that are reliant on the cross-channel experience are more likely to rely on operational intelligence to provide hard-to-gain insight into user behavior.

■ Security: The biggest and fastest growing IT management concern in both 2013 and 2015 was security threats through compromise of IT systems. While operational intelligence helps conquer complexity, it also leads to greater concerns about IT security as those with insight into the threats they face are less complacent than those who lack such insight.

The survey looked at how well prepared organizations are to cope with IT emergencies, such as system downtime, which was the number two overall IT management concern. The survey found that about 30% of organizations have no real coping strategy for downtime.

The report says: "Coping strategies make a difference; the concern about system downtime is considerably reduced when they are in-place. Using third parties makes the biggest difference; organizations that provide such services will have experienced personnel that spend each and every day dealing with emergencies. Furthermore, this will leave in-house staff freer to focus on other areas of concern such as IT innovation and improving the customer experience."

"Understanding what issues might occur, what issues have occurred, and working out how best to respond to them whilst minimizing the impact on the business, requires insight and that is provided by effective operational intelligence."

Quocirca surveyed 380 companies in the UK, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.