What is AIOps, and how to get it right?
Gone are the days when AIOps was merely used as a buzzword to draw attention to the growing popularity of AI in IT service management. Today, factors such as the never-ending COVID 19 pandemic and the great resignation have pushed AIOps to emerge as a vital instrument for enterprises looking for ways to optimize their digital operations.
The latest report by Constellation Research on A CIO’s guide to AIOps, predicts the growth in the AIOps field to range anywhere from $9.4 billion by 2026 to a whopping $645 billion by 2030—with an annual estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20% to 30% in the next five to 10 years.
Given how hot and large the field is, IT leaders may find it tempting to jump on the bandwagon and fall prey to the sales pitches of IT vendors who have relabeled themselves as AIOps vendors. To avoid the risk of downtime and failed AIOps implementations, Constellation Research recommends best practices for implementing the right AIOps system.
But more on that later.
First, let’s find out what AIOps really means.
What is AIOps? Asking for a friend.
Contrary to some beliefs, AIOps isn’t about improving AI with IT operations but rather, it’s about applying AI to enhance IT operations.
AIOps is about more than just IT operations: It encompasses DevOps, IT service management (ITSM), incident management, observability, support, security, and KPIs/priorities from business stakeholders. It’s about providing actionable insights into IT operations data—whether it is hybrid, cloud-based, or private data center–based.
Now that we have the basics out of the way, let’s find out how to get it right by following five best practices for a successful AIOps implementation.
Five ways to get AIOps right
1. Create a strategy
The forced digital maturity due to the pandemic and cost overruns in IT organizations are compelling a lot of enterprises, especially the digital ones, to execute as fast as possible to make their IT more efficient. As with any IT project, failing to create and execute a plan will almost always result in failure.
2. Engage the C-suite early and often
Without support and funding from C-suite sponsors, any IT project—including AIOps—will be an uphill battle. Get senior management buy-in, create a compelling ROI, show them the metrics that will work for the enterprise, and execute the plan. Doing a small pilot and proving how AIOps will make IT operations more efficient and showing the cost savings makes it easy to get the C-suite on board.
3. Start small and stay focused
A major reason AIOps projects can fail is that IT leaders want to do everything immediately. As with any IT project but more importantly with AIOps, the first step is to clearly define the business problem an organization seeks to solve with AIOps. Although AIOps, as a broader term, can solve many of the IT operational inefficiencies, all of them may not be of immediate importance to an enterprise’s goals.
4. Identify the right AIOps solution
Given the interest in AIOps, many legacy vendors are repackaging their solutions as do-it-all AIOps platforms. Worse, some have added rules-based or basic AI features and call the solution a true AIOps solution. Sooner or later, the enterprise needs will outgrow these “AIOps platforms” and will be forced to start all over again. A proper AIOps solution should be able to support all possible telemetry information the enterprise collects—logs, metrics, traces, and events. It should be able to handle both structured and unstructured data.
5. Select the right set of supporting tools
When implementing AIOps to solve ITOps issues, it is advisable to use the appropriate supporting cast as well. First of all, exercise care in selecting the right solution set to implement AIOps. Although it is preferable to find a single-vendor solution, sometimes that may not be possible. Don’t be afraid to look at best-of-breed tools instead of using a vendor that excels in one area and is substandard in other areas.
Final thoughts
We’ve only covered a fraction of what’s discussed in the latest report by Constellation Research. To find out more on how CIOs can build a resilient modern system to support digital businesses and overcome challenges, click here to download the report.
