Innovation is a core necessity of the market economy. Taking good ideas and making them more dynamic and practical fuels economic growth, efficiency, and creates a better standard of living for the entire culture. IT is now firmly transforming the way that business is done with innovative tools and strategies. Today, we’ll look at some of the shifts we are seeing come about as a result of information technology. 

Innovation Through IT

It’s not a secret that lots of businesses rely on their information technology systems to run their entire business. IT fuels efficient data storage, use of stored data, and collaborative interfacing with said data. Even as that’s happening, businesses have to constantly monitor and maintain their IT systems. After all, if you depend on technology, and the technology goes down, your business isn't going to get anything done. That is why innovations that make technology more reliable, and new tools that turn traditional business resources on its head, are moving business, and society, forward.

Since this simple notion has been very difficult to put into practice, thought leaders and industry professionals are now trying to determine how to transform applications and infrastructure architectures, service delivery, DEVOps, production operations, security, and compliance. They are doing this, more than ever, by assessing what is needed and developing solutions. This is leading to the development of new solutions that will take IT out from a support capacity and make it more active in the day-to-day administration of key business tasks. 

Investment in Cognitive Computing

Cognitive computing is the act of using powerful computing resources machine learning and artificial intelligence to continuously process data that is received in the course of doing business. These systems include pattern recognition, language processing, and data mining to create an efficiency that isn’t possible without these technologies. As more information comes in, these technologies are being used to improve the business’ ability to shift their business in ways that can:

• Enhance business agility by quickening decision making.
• Be able to consistently scale processes to meet budgetary and operational demands.
• Improve the overall efficiency and performance of a business. 

These technologies can also be used to support several different internal and external aspects of your business. They can help build a more robust operational structure, while also automating several of your business’ customer retention initiatives. By investing in the tools needed to create a more effective business, the “smart” business is sure to stay a step ahead of their direct competitors, and in some cases will be able to help the business to explore new avenues of revenue generation. 

Information Security

A data breach can be a really terrible situation for any business, especially when clients’ and employees’ personal information is stolen. Today, threats are numerous and consistent, so technologies have been developed to help organizations weed out threats. There are several innovative tools designed to improve an organization’s data security initiatives. 

Many of these tools also use machine learning and artificial intelligence to actively adjust a cybersecurity policy to the threats the individual business faces. Since both sides have access to these tools, it becomes essential that companies get proficient at identifying the risks that their essential information systems present. These include:

• Remote access - With many businesses using workers that access data and applications from outside of their network, security solutions need to be able to secure these connections.
• IoT - With most businesses having dozens of unsecured endpoints in the way of IoT devices, having a strategy to keep them from becoming vulnerabilities is important. 
• Regulatory demands - Some businesses have certain regulations they have to comply with and have certain conditions they need to meet in order to do so.
• Hackers - While today’s businesses have better tools than ever, hackers have the same tools, and can become a big problem for companies that take their eyes off of their network at any time.

This is a short list. There are many advanced threats out there that need to be thwarted. The only way to effectively accomplish this is by embracing the innovative tools used by today’s industry professionals.

If you would like to learn more about how technology is working to build more effective businesses, call our IT professionals today at 1-855-405-8889.