IBM and I are pretty much the same page with respect to what’s next: An increasing reliance on artificial intelligence to deal with the growing line requirements and external threats that IT must deal with. While I think IT likely needs medication to get through the coming years, I do think help is on the way—and that help will increasingly come from ever more intelligent systems.
Computing Appliances Are Nice, But They’re Not Intelligent
We’re currently in the appliance phase of computing, in which systems such as VCE’s VBLOCK or IBM’s Pure Systems are preconfigured at the factory and then simply plugged in. Moreover, these systems are designed for use by operators who are largely untrained and, so the time from configuration to operation is short.
Among IT vendors at national scale, the IBM Smarter Computing initiative stands at the forefront. Its leading offering is Watson, which is being used to gather military intelligence, to close the gap between doctors and medical research, and to respond to national cybersecurity threats. (These were demonstrated at the recent IBM Edge event in Las Vegas.)
However these systems aren’t truly intelligent. They come with imbedded skills, and, in the case of Watson, a unique capability to respond to a wide variety of data types. But they aren’t yet creative. Basically, they are the latest iterations of knowledge mining systems. If the information exists, they can find it contextually, but if it doesn’t, they can’t derive it or experience an intuitive leap.
What’s next, then? Systems that can anticipate a new and unique problem, suggest a creative solution and, eventually, implement it without oversight.
This all suggests that, before implementing these next-generation analytics systems, we need to place more than equal attention on intelligent systems to secure them. If the electronic protections aren’t powerful enough, these problem-solving systems will overwhelm them. I doubt any of us want that.
While the future will clearly bring us far more intelligent systems that can make creative decisions on their own, the internal security systems that protect them likely won’t be up to par. We tend to fund line systems at a very different level than staff systems, and security is a staff function. The future may be intelligent—but, unless we’re really careful, it will likely be even less safe, and far more stressful, for IT.
via What’s Next in IT: Intelligent Systems, Stressed-out Staffs – CIO.com.
What"s Next in IT: Intelligent Systems, Stressed-out Staffs
