There is a saying attributed to Confucius that states that “life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” The 6th century BC Chinese philosopher never saw the age of enterprise computing, but if he had, the solution to life’s complexity might well have been AIOps.

The onset of a global pandemic and subsequent move by business en masse to the cloud has sent complexity levels soaring. A single cloud migration can create new layers of operational complexity that many companies are often unable to handle from either a personnel or systems support perspective. This dynamic has given a turbo boost to the AIOps field, where big data and artificial intelligence tools can automate and enhance IT operations that are increasingly dependent on critical applications.

“The challenge is that behind each digital app is massive complexity — hundreds of interwoven services developed by a mix of proprietary and open-source contributors connecting mainframe and multicloud infrastructures with billions of end-user devices,” said Per Kroll, senior director, R&D for DevOps, AIOps and Open Mainframe at Broadcom Inc., in a recent blog post. “These digital demands are driving exponential growth of data and transaction volumes, making it increasingly difficult for IT operations to keep up.”

To help the enterprise computing world keep pace, a Broadcom mini-event — the AIOps Virtual Forum — will be held Dec. 3 at 11 a.m. PST. TheCUBE’s coverage of the event will include interviews with Broadcom executives and industry thought leaders with a focus on how AIOps can transform IT organizations by augmenting human intelligence, finding new ways to automate remediation of network issues, and leveraging the power of AI to do more with less in 2021. (* Disclosure below.)

AI as essential tool

Gartner has predicted that large enterprise use of AIOps to monitor applications and infrastructure will rise to 30% by 2023. This growth will be fueled by a steady march to the cloud and a need to ensure the use of advanced analytics and automation to avoid costly application downtime. Concurrent with enterprise migration to the cloud has been AI advancement as well. It might not have been plausible five years ago that AI could run operations at scale. That has now become a viable option in 2020.

“AI is becoming an essential tool for accelerating, scaling, automating and otherwise optimizing infrastructures at every level,” stated industry analyst James Kobielus, in a discussion on the use of AIOps to optimize cloud computing. “AIOps solutions enable these benefits by driving real-time monitoring, predictive analysis, root cause diagnostics and anomaly detection on system- and application-level events in IT infrastructure, and also in data, application and services at higher layers in the cloud computing stack.” 

A key element behind the growth of AIOps is its role in elevating the influence of IT organizations within enterprises. Smoothly functioning data flows power the applications that run many businesses, and IT now sits at the center in making that engine run effectively.

This reality has forced companies to break down organizational silos where “fiefdoms” competed to provide the most relevant data. When an operational alert triggers the opening of an AIOps-driven action, the technology populates recommended solutions with data drawn from the most appropriate sources. AIOps is about converting outputs to outcomes.

Enhancing security

This evolution has resulted in advances for one of the most critical elements of AIOps: security. Monitoring the performance of any network today means monitoring threats, and AI and machine learning offer the ability to empower security analysts with enough information from log files and endpoint operations to identify patterns of potential attack.

AIOps is emerging as a key solution in the toolbox for enterprises grappling with preparedness for remote work and transformation of business operations at scale. It is also a disruptive force, reshaping IT operations management at a time when cloud migration, security and data availability are taking center stage. Future adoption and use of AIOps will likely determine how companies adapt to a rapidly changing enterprise landscape.

As Jay Samit, former vice chairman of Deloitte Consulting LLP, once noted: “Disruption isn’t about what happens to you; it’s about how you respond to what happens to you.”

Livestream of the AIOps Virtual Forum

The AIOps Virtual Forum is a livestream event with interviews to be broadcasted on theCUBE. You can register for free here to access the live event. Plus, you can watch theCUBE interviews here.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch the live coverage of the AIOps Virtual Forum, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify, which you can enjoy while on the go.

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during the AIOps Virtual Forum

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during the AIOps Virtual Forum include Sreenivasan Rajagopal, head of AIOps products and strategy at Broadcom; Rich Lane, senior research analyst, infrastructure and operations, at Forrester Research; and Usman Nasir, global product management at Verizon.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the AIOps Virtual Forum (Broadcom). Neither Broadcom Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: Broadcom