The evolving IT landscape, significantly influenced by artificial intelligence (AI), edge computing, and increasing security threats, presents substantial challenges for managing compute infrastructure. Traditional management tools often fail to deliver the required scalability, visibility, and automation needed to meet business demands, which can lead to inefficiencies and heightened risks.
To transform IT departments into strategic business partners that foster innovation and growth, it’s crucial for IT leaders to abandon outdated practices. A unified approach to infrastructure management that accommodates both traditional and AI workloads can simplify operations and enhance job satisfaction among IT staff.
Key IT Management Challenges
Cisco commissioned Forrester Consulting to perform a Total Economic Impact™ analysis of their IT operations platform, Cisco Intersight. The platform aims to provide robust visibility, control, and automation capabilities for a range of infrastructures, including data centers and edge environments. The study highlighted several critical challenges faced by IT organizations:
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Difficulty Scaling: Manual processes hinder the swift deployment of compute infrastructure, particularly for those needing to balance traditional and AI workloads across various environments.
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Specialization in AI Workloads: AI alters infrastructure needs, requiring systems to be designed for specific tasks like data preparation and model training, which in turn necessitates specialized resources. This situation demands that organizations adapt their existing management tools to support AI infrastructure seamlessly.
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Lack of Holistic Visibility: As server estates become more complex and distributed, managing them effectively becomes challenging. Often, IT teams find themselves using multiple management tools, which complicates troubleshooting, increases the risk of outages, and creates compliance gaps.
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Inefficient Resource Use: Manual management activities, such as setting up server connections, lead to frustration among IT employees and hinder the progress of strategic initiatives.
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Security and Compliance Gaps: The complexity of managing multiple environments can introduce security vulnerabilities, making it critical for organizations to implement consistent zero-trust strategies and maintain better control of regulatory requirements.
Business Value of Cisco Intersight
The analysis revealed that using Cisco Intersight helped organizations effectively tackle these challenges while driving significant business value. By examining feedback from Intersight users, Forrester found that a composite organization achieved $5 million in benefits over three years with a $1.7 million investment—resulting in an impressive ROI of 192%.
For more information on Forrester’s comprehensive findings, you can download the full analysis The Total Economic Impact™ of Cisco Intersight.
