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Financial Services Held Back by Soaring IT Complexity - Part 2

Gregg Ostrowski
AppDynamics

Start with: Financial Services Held Back by Soaring IT Complexity - Part 1

Technologists Under Intense Pressure

After more than a year of accelerated innovation, and without the tools and insights to effectively manage technology performance, many IT departments are struggling. The Agents of Transformation 2021 research brought home exactly how hard the last 12 months have hit technologists. The vast majority say they feel under intense pressure, are working longer hours and now have difficulty switching off from work, constantly worried about making a costly mistake.

Technologists in financial services are no strangers to working under pressure and have long understood the importance of delivering seamless digital experiences to customers. But over the last year, the stakes have risen to a whole new level. Technology performance and innovation have taken on another level of importance, enabling millions of people to access savings, loans and support during the most uncertain and worrying period of our lifetime.

Take retail banking for example, where almost overnight, banks had to ensure the smooth processing of millions of new government payments to workers and businesses. They've also had to protect customers, particularly the most vulnerable groups in our society, from new and increased threats of fraud and cybercrime, and implemented new lending capabilities to handle the heavy increase in loan applications from small businesses.

Unfortunately, not all are able to keep up — according to a Contrast Security report, financial services institutions are losing millions of dollars and countless hours of time, with only 25% of organizations able to successfully triage security alerts, and an overwhelming 98% have had more than three successful cyberattacks in the last 12 months.

Each of these new market dynamics, and every surge in demand, represents a major IT challenge that technologists have had to solve in real-time, aware that millions of people are dependent on them getting it right.

Technologists Primed for More Innovation but They Need the Right Tools

Technologists had no time to prepare for this once-in-a-lifetime challenge, and to make things even more difficult, they've typically been managing IT performance and collaborating with their teams while working remotely. It's little wonder that the IT department has become such a pressure cooker in most financial services organizations.

Despite ongoing challenges and high-pressure environments, technologists in financial services remain motivated and enthusiastic about the year ahead. They consider the next 12 months as a defining moment for them professionally and a chance to make their mark.

Unfortunately, many feel held back in their efforts to drive innovation, unable to maximize the impact of digital transformation and create their own legacy. 81% feel that they are being hindered in their efforts to perform at a higher level because they are unable to connect IT performance with business outcomes. Shockingly, for an industry that has always been at the forefront of technology innovation, this figure was higher than in any other sector analyzed in the Agents of Transformation 2021 report.

There needs to be a moment of realization for business and IT leaders in the financial services sector, and soon. They have to start providing their IT teams with the tools and insight they need to cut through complexity and data noise, and prioritize actions based on what really matters to the business. Without this, technologists won't be able to do their jobs and financial institutions risk wasting their past and future investments in digital transformation.

Gregg Ostrowski is CTO Advisor at Cisco AppDynamics

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Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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Financial Services Held Back by Soaring IT Complexity - Part 2

Gregg Ostrowski
AppDynamics

Start with: Financial Services Held Back by Soaring IT Complexity - Part 1

Technologists Under Intense Pressure

After more than a year of accelerated innovation, and without the tools and insights to effectively manage technology performance, many IT departments are struggling. The Agents of Transformation 2021 research brought home exactly how hard the last 12 months have hit technologists. The vast majority say they feel under intense pressure, are working longer hours and now have difficulty switching off from work, constantly worried about making a costly mistake.

Technologists in financial services are no strangers to working under pressure and have long understood the importance of delivering seamless digital experiences to customers. But over the last year, the stakes have risen to a whole new level. Technology performance and innovation have taken on another level of importance, enabling millions of people to access savings, loans and support during the most uncertain and worrying period of our lifetime.

Take retail banking for example, where almost overnight, banks had to ensure the smooth processing of millions of new government payments to workers and businesses. They've also had to protect customers, particularly the most vulnerable groups in our society, from new and increased threats of fraud and cybercrime, and implemented new lending capabilities to handle the heavy increase in loan applications from small businesses.

Unfortunately, not all are able to keep up — according to a Contrast Security report, financial services institutions are losing millions of dollars and countless hours of time, with only 25% of organizations able to successfully triage security alerts, and an overwhelming 98% have had more than three successful cyberattacks in the last 12 months.

Each of these new market dynamics, and every surge in demand, represents a major IT challenge that technologists have had to solve in real-time, aware that millions of people are dependent on them getting it right.

Technologists Primed for More Innovation but They Need the Right Tools

Technologists had no time to prepare for this once-in-a-lifetime challenge, and to make things even more difficult, they've typically been managing IT performance and collaborating with their teams while working remotely. It's little wonder that the IT department has become such a pressure cooker in most financial services organizations.

Despite ongoing challenges and high-pressure environments, technologists in financial services remain motivated and enthusiastic about the year ahead. They consider the next 12 months as a defining moment for them professionally and a chance to make their mark.

Unfortunately, many feel held back in their efforts to drive innovation, unable to maximize the impact of digital transformation and create their own legacy. 81% feel that they are being hindered in their efforts to perform at a higher level because they are unable to connect IT performance with business outcomes. Shockingly, for an industry that has always been at the forefront of technology innovation, this figure was higher than in any other sector analyzed in the Agents of Transformation 2021 report.

There needs to be a moment of realization for business and IT leaders in the financial services sector, and soon. They have to start providing their IT teams with the tools and insight they need to cut through complexity and data noise, and prioritize actions based on what really matters to the business. Without this, technologists won't be able to do their jobs and financial institutions risk wasting their past and future investments in digital transformation.

Gregg Ostrowski is CTO Advisor at Cisco AppDynamics

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...