AIOps is the application of artificial intelligence to IT operations. It has become particularly useful for modern IT management in hybridized, distributed, and dynamic environments. AIOps has become a key operational component of modern digital-based organizations, built around software and algorithms.
Aspect
Explanation
Concept Overview
AIOps, short for Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations, is an approach that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies with traditional IT operations to enhance the management and automation of IT systems and infrastructure. AIOps aims to improve the efficiency, reliability, and performance of IT operations by analyzing vast amounts of data and providing actionable insights and automation capabilities. It has gained prominence in the context of DevOps, cloud computing, and digital transformation initiatives.
Key Capabilities
AIOps encompasses various capabilities: 1. Data Collection: Gathering data from diverse sources, including logs, metrics, events, and user interactions. 2. Data Analysis: Using AI and ML algorithms to detect patterns, anomalies, and trends within the data. 3. Predictive Analytics: Forecasting potential issues or outages before they occur. 4. Automation: Implementing automated responses to identified issues, such as remediation or scaling resources. 5. Root Cause Analysis: Determining the underlying causes of problems to prevent recurrence. 6. Real-time Monitoring: Continuous monitoring of IT environments for rapid response.
Applications
AIOps is applied across various IT functions and domains: 1. IT Operations Management: Automating routine tasks, monitoring, and incident resolution. 2. Application Performance Management: Identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks in software applications. 3. Infrastructure Management: Optimizing resource allocation and capacity planning. 4. Security: Detecting and responding to security threats and vulnerabilities. 5. Service Desk: Enhancing user support and issue resolution. 6. DevOps: Integrating AIOps into the DevOps pipeline for continuous improvement.
Benefits
Implementing AIOps offers several benefits: 1. Improved Efficiency: Automation reduces manual intervention and response times. 2. Enhanced Reliability: Proactive issue identification and resolution lead to increased system reliability. 3. Cost Reduction: Optimization of resources and reduced downtime result in cost savings. 4. Scalability: AIOps can scale to handle large and complex IT environments. 5. Better User Experience: Improved performance and reliability lead to a better user experience.
Challenges and Risks
Challenges include data quality, integration complexity, cultural adoption, and data privacy concerns. There’s also the risk of overreliance on AI, leading to potential issues if the AI models are not well-trained or interpreted correctly.
Table of Contents
Understanding AIOps
The term AIOps was first coined by global research and advisory company Gartner in 2016.
AIOps uses big data and machine learning capabilities to enhance IT operations. It enables businesses to:
Identify significant events and patterns related to system performance and availability.
Diagnose and report root causes swiftly for either human or machine intervention and resolution.
Aggregate large volumes of IT operations data relating to applications, analytics tools, and infrastructure components.
In each of the above examples, AIOps replaces multiple and sometimes convoluted manual IT operations with a single, intelligent AI platform. As a result, teams can respond to issues quickly and proactively. In some cases, human teams may not need to respond at all.
AIOps also seeks to bridge the gap between an increasingly dynamic IT environment and user expectations around application performance and availability.
In the next section, we will take a closer look at how this gap is being bridged in more detail.
How does AIOps bridge the gap?
It should be noted that AIOps is not a panacea to increased efficiency and performance.
Businesses will realize the most value from AIOps by using it as an independent platform incorporating data from all IT monitoring sources.
Data is digested via algorithms that streamline and automate IT operations monitoring.
There are five types:
Data selection
Here, algorithms are used to filter through vast amounts of superfluous data to find elements indicating a problem.
In most businesses, AIOps uses entropy algorithms to filter data from networks, infrastructure, applications, cloud, and storage components.
Pattern discovery
Are there relationships or correlations between selected data elements?
What are the causes and the subsequent events?
How can they be grouped for further analysis using text, time, and topology?
Inference
Or identifying the root causes of problems or other recurring issues to immediately rectify them.
Collaboration
How can an algorithm apply the insights gleaned from problem resolution for future incidents?
That is, can the problem-solving process be accelerated or better still, can problems be identified before they occur?
Results are shared in a virtual collaborative environment which is particularly important for problems that transcend boundaries associated with technology, department, or skill level.
Automation
Wherever possible, response and remediation should be automated to make solutions more precise, timely, and cost-effective.
Improved workflows can be triggered with or without human intervention.
AIOps examples
In the final section, let’s take a brief look at some of the interesting and exciting ways AIOps is helping real-world businesses.
Schaeffler Group
Schaeffler Group is a German company that manufactures precision components for various machines in the automotive, aerospace, and industrial sectors.
The company uses the AIOps product IntelliMagic Vision for performance monitoring and bottleneck detection across more than 50 storage systems in over 20 locations.
The company uses storage systems from many different manufacturers, so centralized monitoring of performance and various service level agreements (SLAs) helps it remain agile and responsive.
The product also allows Schaeffler to perform trend analyses and identify atypical performance values which, in turn, provides a simple assessment of new hardware effectiveness.
IBM
IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps is a platform that enables businesses to reduce operational costs and deploy advanced, explainable artificial intelligence across the IT operations toolchain.
Watson AIOps are trained to make connections across data sources and common IT tools in real-time, which means the incident management and remediation process is more efficient.
IBM’s platform uses artificial intelligence to automatically consolidate and group events into smarter, more actionable incident datasets.
This reduces the prevalence of manual processes.
ChatOps
Recommended fixes and points of automation and delivered to teams in addition to other alerts and insights.
Toolchain integration
The platform is compatible with over 100 IT operations tools from some of the most popular vendors in the industry.
These include Slack, Azure, GitHub, AWS, SAP, and Oracle.
Servicenow
The ServiceNow Now Platform empowers businesses and people with more optimized processes and the ability to connect silos for a more seamless experience.
The Now Platform also offers these benefits:
More engaging experiences
Intuitive, omnichannel experiences that are as simple to use as common consumer apps and increase user satisfaction.
Increased productivity
In a single, configurable workspace, teams can solve issues more quickly with purpose-built tools.
They can also increase efficiency via the utilization of context-driven information and the ability to create engaging experiences.
Automation
The Now Platform is about working smarter and faster. Artificial intelligence and analytics automate menial tasks and make predictions which frees up teams to focus on more important work.
Innovation
Any individual across the enterprise can automate, extend, or build workflow apps under a sole, unified platform.
Splunk
Splunk is the only AIOps platform on this list with predictive management, full-stack visibility across cloud environments, and a true, end-to-end service monitoring solution.
The company’s platform modernizes IT portfolios by:
Using predictive analytics and machine learning to prevent downtime and reduce customer impact.
Streamlining incident management to reduce complexity and noise, and
Correlating metric, trace, and event data for 360-degree visibility.
Predictive analytics, which is driven by machine learning algorithms and historical service-health data, can predict future incidents 30 minutes ahead of time.
Splunk’s service dashboards also enable teams to identify problem root causes at the code level.
Molina Healthcare is a Fortune 500 healthcare organization that has experienced rapid growth and a subsequent explosion in data in recent years.
Before implementing AIOps, the company had expensive and disparate IT operations tools.
Troubleshooting was a laborious, ad-hoc process where problems were solved via the process of elimination.
What’s more, there was little to no prioritization of tasks.
The end result was IT staff spending hours on the phone resolving issues.
Many of Molina’s antiquated tools were decommissioned in favor of the AIOps solution that was automated, scalable, and easier to use.
Key takeaway
AIOps uses big data and machine learning capabilities in the application of artificial intelligence to IT operations. The term was first coined by research company Gartner in 2016.
AIOps replaces multiple and somewhat convoluted manual processes with a single, intelligent solution. More generally speaking, it helps businesses meet user expectations in the face of increasingly dynamic IT operations.
AIOps uses algorithms to streamline and automate operations monitoring by way of data selection, pattern discovery, inference, collaboration, and automation.
Key Highlights of AIOps – Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations:
Definition and Purpose: AIOps refers to the application of artificial intelligence (AI) to IT operations. It’s used in modern IT management, especially in hybrid, distributed, and dynamic environments, enhancing efficiency and performance.
Components of AIOps:
Utilizes big data and machine learning to enhance IT operations.
Identifies events and patterns in system performance.
Swiftly diagnoses root causes for intervention and resolution.
Aggregates IT operations data from applications, analytics tools, and infrastructure.
Benefits of AIOps:
Streamlines manual IT operations into an intelligent AI platform.
Enables rapid and proactive issue response.
Bridges the gap between dynamic IT environments and user expectations.
How AIOps Bridges the Gap:
Utilized as an independent platform incorporating data from various IT monitoring sources.
Algorithms filter data (data selection) and discover patterns (pattern discovery).
Root causes are identified (inference) and insights are shared (collaboration).
Response and remediation are automated (automation).
Examples of AIOps Implementations:
Schaeffler Group: Uses AIOps for performance monitoring across multiple storage systems.
IBM Cloud Pak for Watson AIOps: Reduces operational costs by connecting data sources and IT tools.
ServiceNow: Empowers businesses with optimized processes and automation.
Splunk: Offers predictive analytics and full-stack visibility for IT operations improvement.
Key Takeaway:
AIOps employs AI and big data to enhance IT operations.
It replaces manual processes with intelligent AI solutions.
AIOps bridges the gap between dynamic IT environments and user expectations.
Algorithms drive data filtering, pattern discovery, root cause identification, collaboration, and automation.
Real-world companies benefit from AIOps in areas like performance monitoring, incident reduction, and predictive analytics.
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Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
