ST2401

RESEARCH: AI
BACK TO BASICS FOR AI
SUCCESS WITH AI MEANS GOING BACK TO THE BASICS OF GOOD IT MANAGEMENT, SAYS NEW
RESEARCH FROM THE CLOUD INDUSTRY FORUM
is crucial."
According to Terrar, cloud - alongside
many other technologies - has an important
role to play in helping organisations make
the best of AI. This is borne out by the
research: 90% of respondents in the CIF
report say that cloud has helped their
company improve in its digital
transformation efforts and become more
effective as a business, while 96% assert that
their cloud strategy has delivered against
their expectations for their IT estate.
Currently, there is no shortage of
stories discussing the seemingly
inexorable rise of AI. While most
tend to talk about what AI can do now and
what it could do in the future, there is less
focus on how organisations using it can
actually maximise its potential. To achieve
this, companies must take things back to
basics, and ensure all the technology
underpinning their AI strategy is as effective
and as efficient as it possibly can be, says
the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF).
The appetite to take on AI is clear.
Research conducted by CIF this year found
that 86% of respondents consider AI either
very important or critical to their business,
while 14% have completed the process of
migrating applications to the cloud and are
now using cloud to develop their AI
strategy. The research was carried out a few
months after the launch of ChatGPT, with
interest in AI growing even further since
then. It is imperative, however, that
organisations do not lose sight of the
challenges ahead.
David Terrar, CEO of the Cloud Industry
Forum, commented: "We're very much at
the start of a new wave of technological
advancement, encompassing AI and other
emerging tech, such as the metaverse,
mixed reality, robotics and IoT. It's vital for
organisations to ride this wave rather than
be swamped by it. Technologies like AI
might promise to revolutionise businesses,
but getting the best out of them takes time
and effort, so businesses must think hard
about the journey as well as the
destination."
"This means taking the time now to put in
the groundwork and ensure your AI strategy
is built on solid foundations and accurate,
trusted training data," Terrar went on. "This
covers not just your ability to develop and
deliver the technology itself, but making
sure your house is in order in every other
aspect. Having comprehensive cybersecurity
adapted to the age of AI, for example,
"Once the above has been achieved,
organisations must, as an absolute priority,
ensure that the training data they use to
build their AI algorithms is of the highest
quality. 'Garbage in, garbage out' is an oftused
phrase when it comes to data-related
pursuits, and it's more relevant than ever in
AI," says Terrar. "The allure of AI lies in its
autonomous power, but it can't reach its
potential if the less glamorous work isn't
done in the background to help it succeed."
He concludes: "There are lots of
challenges to address in becoming an AI
frontrunner in any given industry, and cloud
remains a powerful enabler in this respect.
As an established technology that continues
to grow in sophistication, it offers an
accessible and hugely effective way of
streamlining IT and building a more resilient
organisation. With stability in IT, ambitious
AI projects become much easier to realise."
CIF's 2023 research report, 'Breaking new
ground with cloud', can be downloaded
here:
https://cloudindustryforum.org/knowledge_
hub/breaking-new-ground-with-cloudresearch-report/
More info: www.cloudindustryforum.org
34 STORAGE Jan/Feb 2024
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