Dell Technologies Inc. is moving closer to enabling so-called artificial intelligence operations, or AIOps, that will make it possible for organizations to access operational data and use it to automate infrastructure technology management.

AIOps is a phrase that was first coined by Gartner Inc. in 2017 to describe how information in IT environments could be potentially managed through automation. It’s essentially a bid to replace current IT operations management point tools with a broader platform built for hybrid cloud environments from the ground up.

In a blog post, Jeff Boudreau, president and general manager of Dell’s Infrastructure Solutions Group, explains that the goal of AIOps is to leverage the power of data generated in on-premises data centers, at the cloud and the edge, to transform organizations into modern, digital businesses.

“With AIOps-driven autonomous operations as part of your IT strategy, you get deeper access to operational data and the ability to act on it through automation at the infrastructure level,” Boudreau said. “This enables existing technical staff to focus on higher-value activities, whether that’s completing security audits, developing new business apps or being able to respond and support new business opportunities.”

One of the key components of Dell’s AIOps strategy is its Dell EMC CloudIQ application that relies on machine learning and predictive analytics to identify infrastructure problems before they can hurt a company’s business operations. CloudIQ now supports more of Dell’s infrastructure, enabling greater insights that will allow organizations to accelerate their daily IT workflows, Boudreau said.

“With new support for PowerEdge servers and PowerSwitch networking announced today, CloudIQ now spans the entire Dell EMC portfolio — hyperconverged/converged infrastructure, compute, storage, networking and data protection,” he wrote. “The addition of support for PowerEdge and PowerSwitch lowers risk and improves IT productivity by monitoring multiple OpenManage Enterprise consoles for PowerEdge servers and proactively monitoring all PowerSwitch networking in a single view.”

In other words, IT teams can now see health notifications, recommended actions, real-time reports and analytics for their entire portfolio of Dell EMC systems across all locations, from a single user interface. Further, CloudIQ works with the Dell APEX Console and Apex Data Storage Service to monitor data protection both on-premises and in the cloud.

“The combined intelligence of CloudIQ and the Dell EMC infrastructure portfolio supports up to Level 3 of the autonomous operations model for a sizable and growing number of IT administration use cases,” Boudreau added.

Bourdreau cites a recent user survey that showed how CloudIQ was able to accelerate time to resolution of IT infrastructure incidents by up to 10 times in some cases. It said that one of its customers, the smart manufacturing solutions provider Plex Systems Inc., was able to resolve IT issues three times faster on average, saving an average of 16 hours per week.

Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller told SiliconANGLE that AI and automation will be the key technologies that decide who the winners and losers in digital business will be, so enterprises need to embrace it sooner rather than later. “It’s good to see an offering from a traditional IT supplier like Dell come into play, as it should help enterprises accelerate this process,” he said.

Image: rawpixel/freepik