AIOps tools promise to reduce downtime and improve efficiency for enterprise service desk teams. Is event correlation the missing piece that can help transform your mountains of alerts into real, actionable operational data and enable automated remediation? Let’s take a closer look at this key piece of the AIOps function set: what it promises, what it delivers, and what’s next.
In the age of big data and digital transformation, organizations are seeking to harness all available data in order to gain insights that can help them improve their business. However, with so much data being generated every day, it can be difficult to know where to start. That’s where event correlation comes in.
What is event correlation?
Event correlation, for the uninitiated, is the process of analyzing and making sense of the tens of thousands of events that can get triggered by dozens of monitoring tools whenever an application or infrastructure failure occurs. IT Operations teams can use these tools – and the insights they provide – to help understand and resolve issues quickly instead of missing or ignoring information because they’re drowning in “alert storms.”
What AIOps tools bring to event correlation
Event correlation is one of the most important aspects of AIOps. Managing high volumes of data and applying pattern recognition to provide context is one of the strengths of AI and machine learning. This kind of AI/ML pattern recognition can, in theory, add a layer of context to statistical analysis of event data. This context can help provide a basis for separating events from incidents.
But in practice, many tools lack this kind of AI/ML analysis. They’re largely reliant on manual configuration and rules-based systems. This can result in false positives, and a high rate of alerts that need to be investigated manually.
In order for event correlation to be truly effective, it needs data enrichment and domain awareness to distinguish the difference between events that are truly related, versus merely concurrent (occurring at the same time) or coincident (occurring in the same location). That kind of data analysis requires AIOps capabilities, to handle both the volume and complexity of the task.
BigPanda: A Leader in Event Correlation
As a recognized leader in IT Ops strategy, Windward seeks partnerships with “Best of Breed” tools to support our clients’ big picture objectives. Windward is currently BigPanda’s #1 partner in the IT consulting space. If you’d like more insight into the current IT Ops tools landscape, check out our shared resource: the IT Ops Buyers Guide.
What event correlation brings to AIOps
The relationship between event correlation and AIOps runs both ways. Just as AIOps offers more robust analysis capabilities, event correlation is a foundational use case for a successful AIOps initiative. When it comes to proving the business case for AIOps, there are few scenarios that are more compelling than its impact on event correlation, and the downstream impacts on downtime and incident resolution.
Additionally, the path to automated incident remediation – what some consider the holy grail of AIOps use cases – by necessity passes through event correlation. It builds a clear picture of not just what is happening, but what it means. This is the first step in root cause analysis and from there, remediation.
What’s next for AIOps & Event Correlation?
It’s clear that AIOps tools hold great promise for reducing downtime and improving service desk operations. However, in order to achieve these benefits, it’s important to consider how event correlation will play into your organization’s specific needs.
Event correlation is the key to unlocking the value of AIOps tools. As more and more companies adopt these powerful tools, it’s important to understand how it can help reduce downtime and improve your service desk operations. If you’re looking for a way to show the business value of AIOps quickly and easily, event correlation is the answer.
Let us show you how our team can help set up an AIOps initiative that will make your enterprise run smoother than ever before. Schedule a call today!
