Skip to main content

Time for IT Operations to Change its Game

David Hayward

The velocity of how enterprises continuously transform their businesses — and change the game of entire markets — is mind-boggling. Apple changed the music industry forever with its iTunes service. Netflix's mail-order CD business crushed its brick-and-motor competitors and now grabs viewers from traditional cable TV providers with its video streaming service and home-grown, Emmy-nominated dramas. And, as recently reported in the news media, Google Chromebooks have come from nowhere to grab nearly a fifth of the US school purchases of mobile computers.

IT development is on board with business transformation, being more agile than ever by building the apps that drive new, innovative services. But what about IT Operations? More than ever, real-time business performance is intertwined with IT infrastructure health. Any lapse in online service performance is felt all the way from the customer to the board room. IT Operations needs to know how to change its game.

According to Jim Frey, VP of Research at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), operations centers are responding to business pressures by transforming from technology alert monitoring into "cross-domain services management organizations." Instead of handling alerts separately from each technology domain (networks, servers, databases, applications), this new kind of operations organization is looking to correlate events and incidents across technology domains and relate them to how they impact specific business services that domains collectively support. According to Frey,"This new cross-domain operations layer in the IT organization is an essential strategy for overcoming the challenges of finding root cause of what impacts services in today's complex infrastructures – and doing it at the speed that businesses demand."

Make-overs like these require monitoring capable of driving new service-focused operational processes and responsibilities. Monitoring tools must analyze service impact across technology domains. Service impact data can be used to drive service-focused incident and problem management processes. Then Operations staff can shift from red-yellow-green infrastructure alert monitoring to service impact alert handling.

A recent Tech Validate poll of organizations moving to cross-domain service management revealed how IT organizations are changing their game. Using service-oriented tools to support new processes, they are transforming IT Operations to support broad business initiatives, such as new business models, new services for gaining market share, and new IT technologies.

Other Tech Validate research found that organizations are implementing cross-domain service management to improve service root cause analysis, be more proactive in addressing service issues and be more successful in assuring that service level objectives are met.

A good example of hand-in-hand business and IT transformation is Lexmark. Known worldwide for its printer products, the company is currently undergoing a major transformation that will take it from a manufacturing and supply chain organization to a printing solutions and software provider. The ability to see the impact of an individual issue on critical process is helping Lexmark improve services and even avoid incidents before they happen. According Lance Neal, manager of the IT Operational Excellence Program at Lexmark, "The focus has shifted away from checking components in silos to ensuring that the end-to-end process works, which is helping improve service internally and to customers."

David Hayward is Senior Principal Manager, Solutions Marketing at CA Technologies.

Related Links:

www.ca.com/apm

TechValidate Poll: CA Service Operations Insight's Role in IT and Business Transformation

TechValidate Poll: Challenges that CA Service Operations Insight Addresses

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

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 ...

Time for IT Operations to Change its Game

David Hayward

The velocity of how enterprises continuously transform their businesses — and change the game of entire markets — is mind-boggling. Apple changed the music industry forever with its iTunes service. Netflix's mail-order CD business crushed its brick-and-motor competitors and now grabs viewers from traditional cable TV providers with its video streaming service and home-grown, Emmy-nominated dramas. And, as recently reported in the news media, Google Chromebooks have come from nowhere to grab nearly a fifth of the US school purchases of mobile computers.

IT development is on board with business transformation, being more agile than ever by building the apps that drive new, innovative services. But what about IT Operations? More than ever, real-time business performance is intertwined with IT infrastructure health. Any lapse in online service performance is felt all the way from the customer to the board room. IT Operations needs to know how to change its game.

According to Jim Frey, VP of Research at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), operations centers are responding to business pressures by transforming from technology alert monitoring into "cross-domain services management organizations." Instead of handling alerts separately from each technology domain (networks, servers, databases, applications), this new kind of operations organization is looking to correlate events and incidents across technology domains and relate them to how they impact specific business services that domains collectively support. According to Frey,"This new cross-domain operations layer in the IT organization is an essential strategy for overcoming the challenges of finding root cause of what impacts services in today's complex infrastructures – and doing it at the speed that businesses demand."

Make-overs like these require monitoring capable of driving new service-focused operational processes and responsibilities. Monitoring tools must analyze service impact across technology domains. Service impact data can be used to drive service-focused incident and problem management processes. Then Operations staff can shift from red-yellow-green infrastructure alert monitoring to service impact alert handling.

A recent Tech Validate poll of organizations moving to cross-domain service management revealed how IT organizations are changing their game. Using service-oriented tools to support new processes, they are transforming IT Operations to support broad business initiatives, such as new business models, new services for gaining market share, and new IT technologies.

Other Tech Validate research found that organizations are implementing cross-domain service management to improve service root cause analysis, be more proactive in addressing service issues and be more successful in assuring that service level objectives are met.

A good example of hand-in-hand business and IT transformation is Lexmark. Known worldwide for its printer products, the company is currently undergoing a major transformation that will take it from a manufacturing and supply chain organization to a printing solutions and software provider. The ability to see the impact of an individual issue on critical process is helping Lexmark improve services and even avoid incidents before they happen. According Lance Neal, manager of the IT Operational Excellence Program at Lexmark, "The focus has shifted away from checking components in silos to ensuring that the end-to-end process works, which is helping improve service internally and to customers."

David Hayward is Senior Principal Manager, Solutions Marketing at CA Technologies.

Related Links:

www.ca.com/apm

TechValidate Poll: CA Service Operations Insight's Role in IT and Business Transformation

TechValidate Poll: Challenges that CA Service Operations Insight Addresses

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

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 ...