IT operations analytics

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In the fields of Information Technology (IT) and Systems Management, IT operations analytics (ITOA) is an approach or method to retrieve, analyze, and report data for IT operations. ITOA may apply big data analytics to large datasets to produce business insights. [1] [2] In 2014, Gartner predicted its use might increase revenue or reduce costs. [3] By 2017, it predicted that 15% of enterprises will use IT operations analytics technologies. [2]

Contents

Definition

IT operations analytics (ITOA) (also known as advanced operational analytics, [4] or IT data analytics [5] ) technologies are primarily used to discover complex patterns in high volumes of often "noisy" IT system availability and performance data. [6] Forrester Research defined IT analytics as "The use of mathematical algorithms and other innovations to extract meaningful information from the sea of raw data collected by management and monitoring technologies." [7] Note, ITOA is different than AIOps, which focuses on applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to the applications of ITOA.

History

Operations research as a discipline emerged from the Second World War to improve military efficiency and decision-making on the battlefield. [8] However, only with the emergence of machine learning tech in the early 2000s could an artificially intelligent operational analytics platform actually begin to engage in the high-level pattern recognition that could adequately serve business needs. [1] A critical catalyst towards ITOA development was the rise of Google, which pioneered a predictive analytics model that represented the first attempt to read into patterns of human behavior on the Internet. IT specialists then applied predictive analytics to the IT Industry, coming forward with platforms that can sift through data to generate insights without the need for human intervention. [1]

Due to the mainstream embrace of cloud computing and the increasing desire for businesses to adopt more big data practices, the ITOA industry has grown significantly since 2010. A 2016 ExtraHop survey of large and mid-size corporations indicates that 65 percent of the businesses surveyed will seek to integrate their data silos either this year or the next. [9] The current goals of ITOA platforms are to improve the accuracy of their APM services, facilitate better integration with the data, and to enhance their predictive analytics capabilities.

Applications

ITOA systems tend to be used by IT operations teams, and Gartner describes seven applications of ITOA systems: [10]

Types

In their Data Growth Demands a Single, Architected IT Operations Analytics Platform, Gartner Research describes five types of analytics technologies: [11]

Tools and ITOA platforms

A number of vendors operate in the ITOA space:

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Analytics</span> Discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">SAS (software)</span> Statistical software

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In the fields of information technology and systems management, application performance management (APM) is the monitoring and management of the performance and availability of software applications. APM strives to detect and diagnose complex application performance problems to maintain an expected level of service. APM is "the translation of IT metrics into business meaning ."

Passive monitoring is a technique used to capture traffic from a network by copying traffic, often from a span port or mirror port or via a network tap. It can be used in application performance management for performance trending and predictive analysis. Passive monitoring is also used in web performance optimization in the form of real user monitoring. E-commerce and media industries use real user monitoring to correlate site performance to conversions and engagement.

Operational intelligence (OI) is a category of real-time dynamic, business analytics that delivers visibility and insight into data, streaming events and business operations. OI solutions run queries against streaming data feeds and event data to deliver analytic results as operational instructions. OI provides organizations the ability to make decisions and immediately act on these analytic insights, through manual or automated actions.

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Nastel Technologies is an information technology (IT) monitoring company that sells software for Artificial Intelligent IT Operations (AIOps), monitoring and managing middleware, transaction tracking and tracing, IT Operational Analytics (ITOA), Decision Support Systems (DSS) business transaction management (BTM) and application performance management (APM).

AppDynamics is a full-stack application performance management (APM) and IT operations analytics (ITOA) company based in San Francisco. The company focuses on managing the performance and availability of applications across cloud computing environments, IT infrastructure, network architecture, digital user experience design, application security threat detection, observability, and data centers. In March 2017, AppDynamics was acquired by Cisco for $3.7 billion. The software intelligence platform is used in enterprise and public sector SaaS applications such as the financial service sector, healthcare, telecom, manufacturing, and government for full-stack observability and IT infrastructure monitoring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sumo Logic</span> U.S. information technology company

Sumo Logic, Inc. is a cloud-based machine data analytics company focusing on security, operations and BI use-cases. It provides log management and analytics services that use machine-generated big data. Sumo Logic was founded in April 2010 by ArcSight veterans Kumar Saurabh and Christian Beedgen, and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.

Saffron Technology, Inc., was a technology company headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, that developed cognitive computing systems. Their systems use incremental learning to understand and unify by entity the connections between an entity and other “things” in data, along with the context of their connections and their raw frequency counts. Saffron learns from all sources of data including structured and unstructured data to support knowledge-based decision making. Its patented technology captures the connections between data points at the entity level and stores these connections in an associative memory. Similarity algorithms and predictive analytics are then combined with the associative index to identify patterns in the data. Saffron’s Natural Intelligence platform was utilized across industries including manufacturing, energy, defense and healthcare, to help decision-makers manage risks, identify opportunities and anticipate future outcomes, thus reducing cost and increasing productivity. Its competitors include IBM Watson and Grok. Intel purchased the company in 2015, then shuttered it less than 3 years later.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paxata</span> American private software company

Paxata is a privately owned software company headquartered in Redwood City, California. It develops self-service data preparation software that gets data ready for data analytics software. Paxata's software is intended for business analysts, as opposed to technical staff. It is used to combine data from different sources, then check it for data quality issues, such as duplicates and outliers. Algorithms and machine learning automate certain aspects of data preparation and users work with the software through a user-interface similar to Excel spreadsheets.

Evolven is a technology company that provides IT operations analytics (ITOA) for businesses. Founded in 2007, Evolven is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, with offices in Europe and Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dynatrace</span> American technology company

Dynatrace, Inc. is a global technology company that provides a software observability platform based on artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. Dynatrace technologies are used to monitor, analyze, and optimize application performance, software development and security practices, IT infrastructure, and user experience for businesses and government agencies throughout the world.

Data center management is the collection of tasks performed by those responsible for managing ongoing operation of a data center. This includes Business service management and planning for the future.

Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) is a term coined by Gartner in 2016 as an industry category for machine learning analytics technology that enhances IT operations analytics. AIOps is the acronym of "Artificial Intelligence Operations". Such operation tasks include automation, performance monitoring and event correlations among others.

In IT operations, software performance management is the subset of tools and processes in IT Operations which deals with the collection, monitoring, and analysis of performance metrics. These metrics can indicate to IT staff whether a system component is up and running (available), or that the component is behaving in an abnormal way that would impact its ability to function correctly—much like how a doctor may measure pulse, respiration, and temperature to measure how the human body is "operating". This type of monitoring originated with computer network components, but has now expanded into monitoring other components such as servers and storage devices, as well as groups of components organized to deliver specific services and Business Service Management).

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Time Has Come: Analytics Delivers for IT Operations". Data Center Journal. Archived from the original on 24 February 2013. Retrieved 18 February 2013.
  2. 1 2 Fletcher, Colin (June 24, 2014), Apply IT Operations Analytics to Broader Datasets for Greater Business Insight , retrieved 29 September 2015[ dead link ]
  3. "IT operations analytics: Changing the IT perspective". Information Age. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  4. "Advanced Operations Analytics - What the Data Shows!". APM Digest. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  5. "Quintica offers BMC's TrueSight". IT-Online. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
  6. "Hype Cycle for IT Operations Management, 2013". Gartner. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  7. "Turn Big Data Inward With IT Analytics". Forrester Research. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  8. Kirby, p. 117 Archived 27 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  9. "The State of the ITOA Today" (PDF). ExtraHop. ExtraHop. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
  10. "IT Market Clock for IT Operations Management, 2013". Gartner. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  11. "Data Growth Demands a Single, Architected IT Operations Analytics Platform". Gartner. Retrieved 30 September 2013.