DEJ recently completed a comprehensive research around IT Operations management and the results and analysis will be published in the study scheduled to be released in July. The research identified 14 key areas that organizations should be focusing on in order to be effective when managing their IT operations in digital economy.
1 – Context of monitoring data. 59% of organizations in DEJ’s research reported that making data more actionable is their key goal for IT performance monitoring (ranked #1 overall). Delivering IT monitoring data in the right context is the key differentiator between sole reporting and getting true insights for IT Operations. Some of the vendors that stand out in this area include Moogsoft, PagerDuty, Numerify and BigPanda.
2 – Hybrid and agile infrastructures monitoring. 52% of organizations reported that the approach of using different tool sets for monitoring the Cloud and on- premise environments is ineffective. As organizations are leveraging more hybrid cloud environments and adopting agile IT platforms, they are looking for flexibility from their IT monitoring solutions to be agnostic of the types of infrastructures that are being managed (on premise, Cloud, hybrid, etc.). Some of the vendors that excel in this area include ScienceLogic, Datadog, Zenoss, Turbonomic and SevOne.
3 – Advanced analytics and data management. 22% of organizations reported a success rate of 80% or better in preventing performance issues before users are impacted. Data management and analytics capabilities are becoming the key factor in determining levels of success for IT operations management in a digital economy. Organizations are increasingly looking to deploy capabilities such as predictive analytics, forecasting, optimization, etc., as well as Big Data management techniques in their IT Operations. Some of the vendors with strong capabilities in this area include Splunk, Moogsoft, IBM, Kentik (for network monitoring), Sumo Logic and Loom Systems.
4 – Machine learning. 35% of organizations looking to deploy IT monitoring solution based on machine learning in next 12 months. A growing amount of data to be collected and processed makes the analysis and triggering of the right actions, sometimes, not humanly possible. Machine learning provides IT operations scale, speed and intelligence and it has become one the key ingredients for successfully managing modern IT operations. Some of the vendors that stand out in this area include Moogsoft, ExtraHop, Corvil and Sumo Logic
5 – Correlation. 49% of organizations reported a lack of correlation between systems elements as the key challenge. With increased heterogeneity of data sources, metrics and systems elements, having capabilities for correlating and normalizing IT data becomes the key requirement for making this data usable, relevant and actionable. Some of the vendors with strong capabilities in this area include Datadog, Moogsoft, BigPanda
6 – Business impact. 41% of organizations are looking to leverage IT data outside of the IT. There is unlocked potential in IT operations to impact the business by, not only performing their traditional tasks more effectively, but also by having more visibility into the business value they are creating, providing additional dimension to BI efforts, improving business decision making process, etc. Some of the vendors that excel in this area include Catchpoint, ExtraHop, AppDynamics (Cisco), Corvil, ServiceNow and Numerify.
7 – Microservices monitoring. 61% reported planned increases in deployments of container-based architectures in next 12 months. Deploying microservices infrastructures results in multiple business and operational benefits, but from a management perspective is driving a new set of challenges and requires a different monitoring approach. Some of the vendors that excel in this area include Instana and Sysdig.
8 – Incident alerting and resolution. 55% of organizations are looking to improve accuracy, timeliness and relevance of IT alerting and notification. Organizations are looking for more intelligence and context from IT alerting, as well as a more clear path from a notification to a resolution of a problem. Some of the companies with core strengths in this area include BigPanda, PagerDuty, Everbridge, Victorops and SignalFx.
9 – New technology readiness. 54% of IT Operations professionals listed supporting deployment of new technologies as their key goal (ranked #1). Digital transformation is driving IT teams to build capabilities for quickly and seamlessly adopting new technologies in a fashion where they don’t disrupt their existing operations, but are enhancing the business value that IT delivers. Some of the vendors with strong capabilities in this area include Zenoss, ScienceLogic and Datadog.
10 – Automation. DEJ’s research found 71% increase in interest in automation capabilities for IT monitoring since 2011. The need to improve the effectiveness of IT monitoring is calling more and more for automation of not only repeatable tasks, but also parts of a knowledge work performed by IT operations. Some of the vendors with strong capabilities in this area include BigPanda, CA Technologies and PagerDuty.
11 – Full visibility. 65% of organizations reported 5 or more blind spots in the IT service delivery chain. With increased complexity and ongoing change, it becomes increasingly important that IT operations are able to monitor all infrastructure elements, events and an entire infrastructure stack. Some of the vendors with strong capabilities in this area include Datadog, LogicMonitor, ScienceLogic, Moogsoft, BMC and Zenoss.
12 – Optimization. 65% of organizations looking to deploy capabilities for the “what if” analysis of IT infrastructure utilization and performance impact. Organizations are looking to make educated decisions about optimizing the number and value of IT monitoring tools they are using so that they can improve both cost efficiency and performance. Some of the companies with strong capabilities in this area include BMC and Turbonomic.
13 – Streaming, real-time data and speed of access. DEJ’s research shows 37% increase in the need for streaming IT monitoring data over the last 12 months. In order to meet the requirements of a fast changing digital economy, it is becoming critical for organizations to not only process and analyze larger amounts of IT monitoring data, but to do so with real-time data streams. Some of the vendors with strong capabilities in this area include Corvil, Nastel, Moogsoft, and ExtraHop.
14 – Network performance. 68% of organizations reported that the role of network has become more strategic over the last 12 months. A new approach for network performance management should take into consideration the network beyond connectivity and look at it as a rich source of highly important operational and business data. Some of the leading vendors in this area include Riverbed, NetScout, Corvil, ExtraHop, AppNeta, SevOne, Viavi, Kentik and Ipswitch.
