IT Operations Management (ITOM) refers to the administration of technology and application requirements within an IT organization. Under the ITIL framework, ITOM’s objective is to monitor, control, and execute the routine tasks necessary to support an organization’s IT infrastructure.
(Also, see “ITIL4 and IT Operations Management”)
In addition to the above, an ITOM solution ensures effective provisioning and management of capacity, cost, performance, and security of the IT infrastructure within the organization.
It’s interesting to see how mainstream technology seeps into various management paradigms such as AI supporting IT Service Management (ITSM) and IT Operations Management (ITOM). What’s more exciting is when these processes inspire and spread outside the IT infrastructure to the rest of the organization’s departments such as in the case of Enterprise Service Management (ESM).
(Also, see “ITSM and ITOM: How they align, how they differ, and why they matter“)
2021 will see a phenomenal shift in ITOM and its objective of providing cost effective, efficient, and qualitative delivery of services. In this article we discuss five upcoming ITOM trends that are essential for securing and maintaining your IT infrastructure:
1. Data-driven IT Operations
A study conducted by Gartner estimates that by 2022, 60% of enterprise IT infrastructure will focus on “centers of data” that will inherently drive the majority of IT operations workflows and decision making.
IT operations have always been dependent on incoming data to renew previous assumptions, improve processes, and increase performance efficiency. And now more than ever, we will need data from multiple sources of information such as logs, metrics, and traces to keep up the pace.
This might be more daunting when we learn that private sector companies are now looking for data sovereignty, latency, or compliance through private cloud systems. This will allow for enterprise services that need the flexibility and agility of cloud but require siloed IT infrastructure.
Additionally, Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) will also play a role in monitoring, organizing, and managing the large amounts of IT operations and event data.
2. Increased Adoption of ESM Solutions
In an ever-changing digital landscape, IT operations data and expertise are being utilized to improve non-IT areas of the organization such as human resources and marketing. The impact this data has on the rest of the organization has led to an increased adoption of Enterprise Service Management solutions as a long-term strategy for business growth.
All departments within the organization will be able to adopt ESM but it should follow an order of priority, and it is the responsibility of the management to lead the organization through this developmental process.
Adopting an ESM solution ensures that your IT infrastructure succeeds even when market competition is fierce, consumer expectations are constantly changing, and the margin for error is minimal.
3. Automation-based Infrastructure Operations
Gartner has identified a rise in the trend of companies adopting automation strategies in an attempt to repurpose IT staff to perform tasks of greater value.
By automating repetitive tasks in the execution process, ITOM solutions help mitigate possible inconsistencies or issues that usually occur when the process is carried out manually.
Because ITOM extends visibility and reach into other IT Management processes such as ITAM, ITSM, and so on, automation-based infrastructure operations replace expensive human expertise and effort, thereby freeing up time for more complex tasks.
4. Unified Management Solution for All Hybrid Infrastructure
Another emerging trend in the ITOM space is a unified management solution for hybrid infrastructure, also called Hybrid Digital Infrastructure Management (HDIM).
The technology integrates multiple functionalities of routine IT operations such as infrastructure management, data management, cloud management, security, and other ITSM functions into one unified solution.
Because managing hybrid IT infrastructure is challenging, HDIM technologies will provide a viable solution that addresses the key pain points of operational processes and tools required to manage the same.
Although HDIM technologies are still in the early stages of development, Gartner predicts that 20% of IT organizations will adopt HDIM technologies to optimize hybrid IT infrastructure operations.
5. Transitioning from Traditional ITSM and ITOM to AIOps
Touted as the next big thing in IT management, Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations or AIOps is the application of advanced technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence to automate IT operations within the organization.
Modern IT infrastructure is becoming increasingly complex as enterprises look to adopt newer and more efficient solutions to meet modern day IT challenges. AIOps helps enhance traditional ITSM and ITOM operations by automating key components of the process.
For instance, an AIOps solution can identify a network or outage problem in real-time, and use automation to identify the error and fix it even before the customer is notified. In addition, this improves the incident response time and increases performance efficiency, thereby improving the customer experience.
Conclusion
In the future, IT Operations Management will serve as an anchor for all organizational processes, IT related and otherwise, to ensure that the delivery of quality IT support services is continuously optimized and improved with time.
ITOM automation will be capable of monitoring alerts and initiating required protocols for network intruders or server shutdown while AI collects operations data from such incidents and helps prevent future occurrences conveyed by user-friendly dashboards and forecast reports.
An effective ITOM solution lays the foundation for successful and efficient management of an organization’s IT infrastructure. Virima’s affordable, integratable, easy to deploy ITOM solution powered by ViVID service maps not only improves IT operations health but also delivers many tangible benefits to assist with IT asset, service, security, risk and compliance management.
Virima features can automatically discover and map your critical IT resources and the interconnections that link them to one another, your applications and services, and your users. Virima can also automate many time wasting tasks so staff can focus on more important functions.
Virima is here to help. To get started, contact us today to schedule a demo and explore the possibilities!
