Reactivity vs. Outcome and Experience
For a long time monitoring was reactive. If something went wrong, the operations team was alerted and the issue solved by looking at the performance and the availability of applications. The goal was to keep the system running smoothly from an IT Ops perspective. Now, the focus is moving toward business outcomes and customer experience. The move towards hybrid or cloud systems improves the possibility for organizations to achieve these goals, but also brings new challenges.
Tooling Evolutions
Codit is an Integration specialist which has used BizTalk for many years. This meant that what we were monitoring was well known and predictable. With hybrid and cloud solutions, and the addition of API, IoT and data solutions this is no longer the case. By improving the observability of the system, storing Infrastructure or service metrics and logs, telemetry and business data, the amount of information that could sip through has increased exponentially. Whilst in the past, you were able to make sense of the raw data, this is no longer the case – you can’t just rely on your experience anymore. You must develop new skills and new ways of thinking. There is a plus side, however. Evolution in tooling creates opportunities for better insight into the environment, proactively monitoring the solution, improving root cause analysis, faster response and focus on business outcomes. Aside from monitoring and diagnostics, the data can also be used to provide business insights for your company.
DevOps, IT Ops and Sec Ops
Another evolution can be seen in the convergence of DevOps, IT Ops and Sec Ops. In the past, these teams had different and often opposing goals. To create reliable, secure and efficient solutions, you must now find a way for them to work together. There is a partial overlap in monitoring data and tools, but primarily there is an increased need for earlier cooperation. In the past, monitoring was often an afterthought. Now, to continuously deliver secure solutions in a reliable manner, you need to make sure new releases are tested for reliability and monitored from the start, in order to ensure your business outcomes are delivered (and if not, rolled back).
AI Ops
AI and Machine Learning solutions, while still in the early stages, are being used to detect patterns and anomalies, predict outcomes and help in root cause analysis and automated resolution. Considering the above challenges, the growth of AI Ops is inevitable. Read all about this in our next blog post > > >
Gartner Report
Conclusion
So what now? The way forward for businesses is to improve monitoring from the top-down. We need to look at the business processes: how we can achieve our goals, and what metrics and tools are needed to do this. The move to the cloud brings unseen opportunities, leveraging the data to not just improve reliability but also bring more value to you.
Want to know more about how Codit’s Managed Services team can help?
Contact Enza
Customer Care General Manager