History will look back on this period of the 21st century as a pioneering, resilient, and excitingly disruptive time. We’re deep into a dynamic era as the cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI), IT automation, and digital transformation converge to drive challenges and dazzling opportunities. The sheer force and potential of AI—coupled with unprecedented security risks and ongoing infrastructure advances will shape enterprises for years to come.

Organizations today are under pressure to stay ahead and maintain IT applications and infrastructure optimally. That means their IT teams are tasked to make sure that functions move along smoothly while minimizing downtime. To keep the lights on, enterprises add whatever domain-specific tools they need. However, these tools are often reactive, and not nearly robust enough to handle complex application topologies.

In today’s digital age, IT has become the central component of business operations. Yet, despite its critical importance, skilled technicians continue to find their hands tied by time-consuming manual tasks. And, while many of these tasks are essential, they do virtually nothing to drive innovation. Introducing automation into the mix can free up IT talent to focus their skills on more important business initiatives – particularly those that drive change and generate revenue.

In today’s digital world, application responsiveness isn’t just an end-user desire but an expectation. Nobody understands the challenges of meeting these demands better than IT, which must remain poised to act when an issue occurs while also finding ways to innovate, improve, and implement continuously.