Skip to main content

Advanced IT Analytics, AIOps and Big Data - 7 Key Takeaways - Part 2

Dennis Drogseth

The goal of EMA's latest research was to look at how advanced IT analytics (AIA) — EMA's term for primarily what today is best known as "AIOps" — is being deployed. Here are the remaining four of my seven personal takeaways.

Start with Advanced IT Analytics, AIOps and Big Data - 7 Key Takeaways - Part 1

For a much more focused exploration of the "IT analytic universe," one that's all digestible within 45 minutes (including Q&A), register for the upcoming EMA webinar on October 10.

4. Capturing interdependencies and CMDB/CMS

Capturing interdependencies and CMDB/CMS both stood out in importance. As an average, respondents sought to capture nearly five interdependencies across the application/infrastructure, while 54% of respondents viewed the CMDB as "extremely important" to their analytics strategy, a surprising valuation that correlated strongly with success.

The implications of this may seem to contradict notions that the CMDB is "old hat" technology. Rather, what's indicated in these findings is that CMDB/CMS and application/infrastructure dependency mapping are technology areas that are both being reinvigorated by AIA/AIOps investments, while also providing valuable contexts for leveraging and optimizing analytic insights for a variety of use cases.

5. Security on the rise

Security is on the rise. Priorities in cloud, vendor selection, heuristics, and best practices all indicate that security is a leading and largely integrated concern in advanced IT analytics, and AIOps in particular. This was not altogether a surprise given similar findings inEMA's 2016 research (EMA Research: Advanced IT Analytics: A Look at Real-World Adoptions in the Real World, March 2016).

Moreover, it is both a welcome and a much-needed advance, as the trend toward a true SecOps (security + operations) integration across IT organizations is becoming ever more critical given rising vulnerabilities, as well as the growing demand for OpEx efficiencies across IT.

6. Top-down is winning strategy

Top-down for everything is the winning strategy. It is also the most pervasive. The executive suite (VP and above) was more likely to be successful, and more likely to drive AIA strategies, deployment and purchasing decisions.

The reasons for this make sense once AIA/AIOps is understood as a unifying technology that can help to bring IT silos closer together with shared data and common insights. But to realize this advantage fully, process issues, organizational barriers and even habits of mind can be transformed through improved dialog and leadership.

7. Advanced analytics show strong evolutionary values

Advanced analytics are showing strong evolutionary values compared to prior years. EMA research from early 2016 and 2014 (EMA Research: The Many Faces of Advanced Operations Analytics, September 2014) indicate strong growth in heuristics, data sources, integrations, stakeholder roles, and overall versatility in terms of function and purpose.

The implications are that AIA/AIOps solutions are evolving dramatically in terms of functionality, use-case and breadth.

Here, the progress wasn't surprising, but the degree of progress in terms of hard numbers actually was.

… and there's a lot more.

There was no "spoiler's alert" at the beginning because the real proof of the pudding is the hard data and the many other insights that I plan on sharing during the webinar in October.

But hopefully you'll find some of the discoveries mentioned here intriguing, and as always, I welcome your thoughts and comments at drogseth@emausa.com.

The Latest

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

Today, organizations are generating and processing more data than ever before. From training AI models to running complex analytics, massive datasets have become the backbone of innovation. However, as businesses embrace the cloud for its scalability and flexibility, a new challenge arises: managing the soaring costs of storing and processing this data ...

Advanced IT Analytics, AIOps and Big Data - 7 Key Takeaways - Part 2

Dennis Drogseth

The goal of EMA's latest research was to look at how advanced IT analytics (AIA) — EMA's term for primarily what today is best known as "AIOps" — is being deployed. Here are the remaining four of my seven personal takeaways.

Start with Advanced IT Analytics, AIOps and Big Data - 7 Key Takeaways - Part 1

For a much more focused exploration of the "IT analytic universe," one that's all digestible within 45 minutes (including Q&A), register for the upcoming EMA webinar on October 10.

4. Capturing interdependencies and CMDB/CMS

Capturing interdependencies and CMDB/CMS both stood out in importance. As an average, respondents sought to capture nearly five interdependencies across the application/infrastructure, while 54% of respondents viewed the CMDB as "extremely important" to their analytics strategy, a surprising valuation that correlated strongly with success.

The implications of this may seem to contradict notions that the CMDB is "old hat" technology. Rather, what's indicated in these findings is that CMDB/CMS and application/infrastructure dependency mapping are technology areas that are both being reinvigorated by AIA/AIOps investments, while also providing valuable contexts for leveraging and optimizing analytic insights for a variety of use cases.

5. Security on the rise

Security is on the rise. Priorities in cloud, vendor selection, heuristics, and best practices all indicate that security is a leading and largely integrated concern in advanced IT analytics, and AIOps in particular. This was not altogether a surprise given similar findings inEMA's 2016 research (EMA Research: Advanced IT Analytics: A Look at Real-World Adoptions in the Real World, March 2016).

Moreover, it is both a welcome and a much-needed advance, as the trend toward a true SecOps (security + operations) integration across IT organizations is becoming ever more critical given rising vulnerabilities, as well as the growing demand for OpEx efficiencies across IT.

6. Top-down is winning strategy

Top-down for everything is the winning strategy. It is also the most pervasive. The executive suite (VP and above) was more likely to be successful, and more likely to drive AIA strategies, deployment and purchasing decisions.

The reasons for this make sense once AIA/AIOps is understood as a unifying technology that can help to bring IT silos closer together with shared data and common insights. But to realize this advantage fully, process issues, organizational barriers and even habits of mind can be transformed through improved dialog and leadership.

7. Advanced analytics show strong evolutionary values

Advanced analytics are showing strong evolutionary values compared to prior years. EMA research from early 2016 and 2014 (EMA Research: The Many Faces of Advanced Operations Analytics, September 2014) indicate strong growth in heuristics, data sources, integrations, stakeholder roles, and overall versatility in terms of function and purpose.

The implications are that AIA/AIOps solutions are evolving dramatically in terms of functionality, use-case and breadth.

Here, the progress wasn't surprising, but the degree of progress in terms of hard numbers actually was.

… and there's a lot more.

There was no "spoiler's alert" at the beginning because the real proof of the pudding is the hard data and the many other insights that I plan on sharing during the webinar in October.

But hopefully you'll find some of the discoveries mentioned here intriguing, and as always, I welcome your thoughts and comments at drogseth@emausa.com.

The Latest

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

Image
Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

Image
Broadcom

From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...

Today, organizations are generating and processing more data than ever before. From training AI models to running complex analytics, massive datasets have become the backbone of innovation. However, as businesses embrace the cloud for its scalability and flexibility, a new challenge arises: managing the soaring costs of storing and processing this data ...