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We get asked all the time what “AI for IT” really means. Is it just a fancy way of saying “automation”, or is there more to the equation? Why is it so prevalent now?

Well, if we were to put together an “AI for IT” manifesto, it would go something like this:

…IT has never been more important, but IT must do more with less

Every company is a digital company. Every organization is connected to everything. This makes IT more strategic than ever and a key driver for business profitability (as opposed to a cost center). However, IT has never been more complex, nor has it seen more pressure on budgets and resources.

…Traditional ITSM is no longer adequate

The massive volume of digital information coupled with the decentralization of application deployments have rendered traditional ITSM ill-equipped to address the challenges of a never-ending increasing stream of telemetry data. Companies must look for new IT solutions that mitigate downtime and reduce human intervention. In other words, IT must shift from reactive to proactive, from network-centric to user-centric, and from manual to automated.

…AI is the fundamental approach to meet the automation requirement for IT

AI enables an architecture that correlates telemetry data from disparate systems into a cohesive and consumable flow which can help provide much needed automation to lower costs, maximize IT efficiency, and expedite problem resolution.

AI also provides unprecedented insight into user experience and behavior to optimize IT resources, predict trends, and provide critical data back to the business.

…User experience is the new uptime

Traditional methods of measuring IT service levels are not enough. Every IT organization must instead focus on maximizing the user Quality of Experience (QOE). End users – i.e. customers, employees, and guests — will complain, lose productivity, or take their business elsewhere if the mobile digital experience is not appealing. We must measure and enforce stringent requirements for user experiences.

…AI must be pervasive, and it cannot operate in a vacuum

No IT system is an island. AI must seamlessly interconnect wired, wireless, security, and other IT systems together with complete visibility into the user experience every step of the way.
The vendor community must do this together. AI for IT requires open cooperation to ensure interoperability and to bring automation and visibility to the entire IT stack.

It takes a village

As is the case with many core technologies, there are many devices across the IT stack that must leverage AI – i.e. they must be able to share data and leverage common AI models in an interoperable format. This includes wireless LANs, routers, switches, firewalls, and WANs among other segments. By creating a cross-platform AI engine across these systems, IT can enjoy the benefits of a common user profile that is fully automated with unprecedented insight. This makes IT more strategic than ever to business operations.

AI Ops cannot happen in isolation. IT systems are not intrinsically linked, so an AI for IT system must cross the entire stack and bring disparate systems together. The sooner the community can hammer out the details and publish open specifications, the faster we will all benefit from AI in the enterprise.

By Jeff Aaron of Mist Systems and Danny Johnson of Verizon

Published with permission from https://www.mist.com/news/?md_post_type=post