AIOps Platforms

AIOps is an emerging technology and addresses something I’m a big fan of – improving IT Operations.  So I asked fellow Gartner analyst Colin Fletcher for a guest blog on the topic…

Roughly three years ago, it was looking like we were going to see many enterprise IT operations leaders put themselves in the precarious role of “the cobbler’s children” by forgoing investment in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help them do their work better, faster, and cheaper.

We were hearing from many IT ops leaders building incredibly sophisticated Big Data and Advanced Analytics systems for business stakeholders, but were themselves using rudimentary, reactive red/yellow/green lights and manual steps to help run the infrastructure required to keep those same systems up and running. Further, we’re all now familiar in our personal lives with dynamic recommendations from online retailers, search providers, virtual personal assistants, and entertainment services, Talk about a paradox!

Now I wouldn’t say everything has changed since that time, but a lot has, and for the better. Since then, we have seen a number of exciting developments including a rapid shift in the acceptance of and interest in applying a broad spectrum of Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities to enterprise IT operations management challenges.

As a result, We introduced the concept of AIOps (originally called Algorithmic IT Operations, now Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations) as a means to describe growing interest and investment in these technologies.  Our official definition for AIOps is:

AIOps platforms utilize big data, modern machine learning and other advanced analytics technologies to directly and indirectly enhance IT operations (monitoring, automation and service desk) functions with proactive, personal and dynamic insight. AIOps platforms enable the concurrent use of multiple data sources, data collection methods, analytical (real-time and deep) technologies, and presentation technologies.

We are now seeing a growing number of documented AIOps successes by pioneering IT operations leaders. Further, New AIOps vendors are emerging and more and more IT operations management tool vendors creating new AIOps products or related enhancements (see Magic Quadrant for Network Performance Monitoring and Diagnostics , Market Guide for Continuous Configuration Automation Tools).

To help folks navigate this dynamic technology landscape, we just published the AIOps Platform Market Guide! In the market guide, we describe the current state and shape of the AIOps platform market.

-Colin