The digital evolution peppering today’s business landscape is redefining how companies operate and compete. But as organizations rush to harness the power of artificial intelligence and cloud technologies, they must also contend with growing digital complexities — from tangled data environments to fragmented systems — that challenge agility and scalability.

To remain competitive, businesses need to move in step with these complexities, addressing them in a systematic and strategic way, according to Laura Heisman (pictured), chief marketing officer of Dynatrace LLC.

“Our customers are looking at everything from their applications to AI, to their infrastructure, to compliance, security regulations, everything that they’re dealing with in the operations of their business,” Heisman said. “We’re helping them be able to look at everything that’s growing at this unprecedented rate. It is more complex than ever.”

Heisman spoke with theCUBE’s Rob Strechay at the “Inside the Digital Business With Dynatrace” event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the most pressing challenges and promising opportunities facing today’s digital-first enterprises. (* Disclosure below.)

Navigating today’s digital complexities

As businesses advance their digital transformation journeys, complexity has become both the challenge and the battleground. The landscape of digital complexities has become an environment where applications, infrastructure, security, compliance and user experience all intersect, according to Heisman.

“It is everything from a board-level conversation to core IT operations type of conversation, to developer conversations,” she said. “The real-world impact is everything really around resilience, reliability and being a business that is innovating. If we look back at what happened in 2024, and if you think about core IT teams and operations, they need and want to be predictive. They do not want to have to be reacting. ”

Organizations must now manage a staggering array of systems, often spread across siloed teams, each responsible for delivering seamless customer experiences around the clock. The challenge has transcended keeping into learning how to wield this complexity as a strategic advantage.

“Outages happen, and if customers can’t figure out where those outages are, where that needle in the haystack is, then they can’t fix it fast enough,” Heisman said. “You hear about some customers of ours that can be up right away. You hear about their competitors; it can take days for them to be able to get back up.”

The real-world consequences of digital failure are stark. Whether it’s a brief outage or slow response time, the financial and reputational risks are immense. Organizations no longer have the luxury of reacting to problems. They must be predictive, leveraging observability tools that provide full visibility into their digital ecosystems. This is where platforms such as Dynatrace come into play, helping customers find the “needle in the haystack” before it disrupts service, Heisman pointed out.

AI has long been embedded in Dynatrace’s DNA. Unlike the recent buzz around generative AI, traditional AI capabilities — such as anomaly detection, root cause analysis and automated remediation — have long supported organizations in optimizing operations, Heisman added.

“Picture one gigabyte as a cup of coffee and one zettabyte as the Pacific Ocean,” she said. “Imagine 500 zettabytes of information being 500 Pacific Oceans. We’re getting more complex. There’s so much information out there, and you need to understand your business. To future-proof, there is no golden answer, but you need to understand your business to see where the value is.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the “Inside the Digital Business With Dynatrace” event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the “Inside the Digital Business With Dynatrace” interview series. Neither Dynatrace LLC, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE