More integration of LLMs, a switch to private clouds and more emphasis on machine identity -- enterprise IT predictions for 2024

Enterprises are major users of technology and it impacts on most areas of their operation. The big challenges in recent years have come from the switch to remote and hybrid working, and new technologies like generative AI.

So what can we expect enterprise IT to face in 2024? Here are some expert views.

Ethan Kurzweil, partner at Bessemer Venture Partners expects to see large language models being more integrated. "We see a trough of disillusionment for frontier/bleeding edge AI use cases not being adopted as quickly as people expect. AI may have rocketship uptake in mindshare and regular consumers engaging with LLMs, but will have ‘normal’ integration into enterprise business processes -- which is to say gradually over time as vertical solutions mature and enterprises make room in their budgets for adoption. However, at the same time simple and mundane tasks that ChatGPT and other LLMs can enable today will get deployed quickly enterprise-wide."

Ugo Orsi, chief customer officer at Digitate, echoes this view. "As generative AI continues to gain momentum in mainstream business, expect to see a 'leveling out' in 2024 as enterprises begin to adopt standards and deploy GenAI in applications that make business sense as they pair it with AIOps. Conversational AI will drive customer-facing elements such as customer support, directing inquiries, managing UX interfaces, and the initial vetting of customers. GenAI will be used to provide personalized support to IT users, such as by answering their questions and troubleshooting problems. Beyond that, GenAI will support improved anomaly detection and prediction, automated remediation, which can free up IT staff to focus on more strategic tasks, and enhanced decision-making, providing insights that help IT leaders make better decisions about resource allocation, capacity planning, and other critical areas."

Amit Sood, CTO at Simplr, has a similar view:

The perception of generative AI will change in 2024. It will be rolled out across business units within enterprise companies at scale, and very quickly, IT leaders will realize how limiting it will be to measure generative AI just in terms of cost savings and cost efficiency.

Why? Unlike other automation technologies, generative AI can create new, novel ideas, which enables it to perform unique tasks. For example, some customer service organizations have empowered generative AI chatbots to interact with customers autonomously via live chat customer support interactions. The chatbot itself can intake information from the end customer and create brand new responses to resolve the inquiry.

But AI will lead to greater challenges says Varun Badhwar, CEO and co-founder of Endor Labs. "In a rapidly evolving technological landscape, the parallels between the adoption of cloud services and the current surge in artificial intelligence (AI) implementation are both striking and cautionary. Just as organizations eagerly embraced cloud solutions for their transformative potential in innovation, the haste of adoption outpaced the development of robust security controls and compliance tools. Consequently, this created vulnerabilities that malicious actors were quick to exploit, leaving enterprises grappling with unforeseen challenges."

Deepak Anupalli is co-founder and CTO at WaveMaker says, "The enduring impact of the pandemic will continue to shape the way software is created and foster innovation. Despite a decade of existence, the adoption of applications developed by business teams aided by low code platforms, still faces challenges such as IT acceptance, security, scalability, and licensing models. Low-code platforms will embrace LLMs and other AI models in creating apps that are enterprise-deployable, specially crafted by professional developers, eliminating the risks associated with IT deployment."

Yugabyte CTO Karthik Ranganathan see more use of private clouds:

After years of workload migration from data center infrastructure to the public cloud, I predict a shift in the way businesses utilize public cloud services, along with an increase in the use of private cloud environments.

Enterprises are increasingly realizing that private clouds can provide a powerful tool to lower costs by removing cloud rental costs. While public cloud services are great for workloads that have unpredictable scaling needs, private clouds can be optimized better for high-scale steady state workloads. Cost-conscious enterprises deciding where to run their applications will need to revisit the rent-vs-buy economics of public and private cloud infrastructures.

Databases as a service (DBaaS) are also appealing to companies looking for a uniform experience while retaining the flexibility to deploy their data and apps in their preferred location. Powerful self-managed DBaaS solutions provide the best of both worlds by allowing organizations to run their database like a cloud service but deploy on their private cloud infrastructure to further increase the ROI of their own data centers.

So, while public clouds have (rightly) been popular for over a decade, I see enterprises becoming more selective over which workloads they choose to migrate to public cloud, and showing a preference for private cloud options.

Peter Barker, chief product officer at Ping Identity expects greater efforts to eliminate passwords. "As cybercriminals continue targeting antiquated login options to gain unauthorized access into systems, IT departments must take measures to bolster protection - with 2024 being the year when the risks associated with passwords are completely eliminated across the enterprise. Next year, enterprise leaders will make the leap towards increased adoption of passwordless authentication, to not only safeguard business, but meet users' heightened demands related to digital experience and security."

Murali Palanisamy, chief solutions officer at AppViewX, expects to see greater emphasis on machine identities. "To achieve zero trust, every person and 'thing' needs a managed trusted identity. Traditionally, enterprise organizations have placed a greater emphasis on managing human identities to ensure that the right people have the right access to the right applications and data. Now, machine identities that include all connected devices, workloads, applications and cloud services greatly outnumber human identities and represent a significant blind spot in keeping the enterprise secure. As part of an Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) program, organizations must gain visibility and control of machine identities and converge management with human identities."

Amir Khan (CEO) and Atif Khan (CTO) at Alkira predicts the As-a-Service model will take off for enterprise networking. "2023 has been a turning point for cloud-based, as-a-service delivery models, which enterprises are realizing is just as easy to consume as all the other SaaS applications they have come to rely on. We've seen first hand how much interest has soared over the last 12 months, and it is clear that this is the future of the networking space. Customers have been raving about the ease of use, cost savings, and increased agility and performance that this model delivers, compared to traditional networking where organizations had to purchase, install, and manage their own network infrastructure. With shrinking staffs and IT leaders being asked to do more with less (yet again!), the as-a-service model for networking is going to continue to be a vital component for the next generation of enterprise success."

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