If your business runs on IT, be prepared for big shifts during 2019 in how artificial intelligence will change IT operations. AI is not just about driverless cars, robotics and buying stuff with voice-controlled speakers. For large organizations, IT performance benefits are surging thanks to machine-learning algorithms that automatically reduce tens or hundreds of thousands of daily system alerts by 90% or more. AI is lifting the veil on what that mountain of operational data really means – enabling agile team remediation workflow to ensure peak performance and integrity of IT operations.
Virtually every profession faces changes brought by AI-enabled automation.
1. New industries will adopt AIOps by necessity
The industries most likely to need AIOps during 2019 are those with IT operations spawning exponential growth in system data. This was true in early days for financial services, which successfully used AI in high-volume trading systems. Large manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies followed for similar reasons. In 2019, telecommunications service providers will enter the “we need it now” phase with the rollout of 5G. Today, a cell tower’s transmission range is about 10-19 miles (16-31km). New 5G networks use small cells limited to a range of 10 meters in a metro area to 2km for a rural location. The comparative volume of 5G cells will exponentially grow the number of systems for monitoring. That’s why 5G system telemetry volume will swamp monitoring and response capabilities of legacy technology developed during the 1990s. AIOps will be the only way to ensure integrity of 5G operations.
2. Automation will shift focus of IT operations
Virtually every profession faces changes brought by AI-enabled automation. This is especially true for IT operations, which is solely dependent on massive volumes of data reflecting how devices and applications are performing in the organization’s global infrastructure. The mechanical process of ingesting these data, performing analytics, rejecting false positives and false negatives, isolating potential root causes, and so forth, is more efficient and faster when done with AI. During 2019, we will begin to see a shift in valuation of business skills from “catch incidents and dispatch triage” to applying business analytics to results generated by AI. Businesses need human IT experts to set acceptable service levels and instruct the AIOps system how to look for better business outcomes. IT professionals will focus more on improving customer impacts of incidents and will engage with the Customer Success Team.
3. AIOps will help service providers differentiate durability
Service providers are becoming challenged to differentiate themselves as their offerings and features can seem similar to buyers. During 2019, we see service providers using AIOps to show their durability. This is about how well a service provider is able to ensure peak performance and continuity of operations. AIOps produces valuable data that is usable evidence for durability. These data can show the effectiveness of AIOps, how it keeps systems stable, avoids typical incidents, ensures availability, and protects customers from downtime.
4. AIOps solutions will solve new use cases
The transformation of IT operations with AI began with the automation of event response. Thanks to soaring compute capacity and big data enabled by the cloud, AIOps is able to leverage time series data and machine learning in additional ways. During 2019, new use cases for AIOps will begin to incorporate security and capacity planning. Eventually, AIOps will touch all areas of digital operations. Users will see AIOps as an essential ingredient for successful business operations using private, hybrid and public cloud apps and infrastructure.
5. More vendors will sell AIOps solutions
IT vendors are very good at “following the money.” With the opportunities described above, IT professionals will see during 2019 that more legacy IT operations solutions providers are talking about AI. More buyers will ask up front, “So what does your solution do for AIOps?” If you run a business on IT, it’s a question for which you will need to know the answer.
