Modern digital operations is evolving at a rapid pace. The push and pull of digital transformation has many IT professionals spinning. But organizations that have embraced automation are able to create more operational efficiencies than organizations that are stuck trying to scale with talents vs tech.
We spoke with Raju Chekuri, Chairman and CEO at Netenrich, to discuss where modern digital operations is heading, the challenges most organizations face, and the network and security complexities IT pros face.
What is Netenrich’s view of where modern digital operations (ITOps, SecOps and AIOps) is heading?
The reality is operations across IT, DevOps and security can no longer work in silos. Lines are blurring across tools, data and process. For operations to evolve, network and security organizations need to closely align, integrate and become more efficient.
In traditional organizations, about 90% of routine security incidents are remediated by IT and not by security personnel. The security analysts don’t have the tools, data or access to resolve incidents directly. System architects deploy systems with little or no security considerations. DevOps engineers develop code and standards then hand off to production without thinking about security.
Our view is that modern operations need to converge and integrate with security at its foundation. Enterprises need to use tools that share the same data across IT and security. Data becomes the center of digital operations as information is consolidated and analyzed.
Automation plays an important role in prioritizing alerts and automating tasks. IT leaders can focus on critical high-impact work instead of time consuming, basic tasks. Data analytics and predictive analysis becomes part of the process. Organizations begin to run more effectively and respond faster to issues.
What challenges do companies face when modernizing their ITOps?
CISOs face unsurmountable challenges balancing ITOps budgets across the daily needs of running and maintaining their IT and the desire to modernize their operations. However, the reality is that 70% of IT spend is focused on the “run piece,” —like keeping the lights on— while 30% is dedicated to growth and innovate initiatives, as reported by Gartner research.
Today’s mid-market enterprises struggle in the 70% space. They can’t keep up with the volume of alerts and knowing which critical areas are most at risk. Add to the mix, major skills gaps and outdated legacy systems, it’s no wonder they’re overwhelmed. Major concerns center on how to keep their business running and provide exceptional customer experiences.
On the flip side, we’re seeing savvy CIOs modernize their IT, cloud and security operations. They’re adding automation, optimization and analytics to scale their operations. There’s better integration across people, process and tools. The company becomes more agile and resolves issues more efficiently.
Yet situations arise during IT transformation when outages happen. Applications and businesses go down with customers impacted. In many instances, they’re first to know even before the hosting company finds out. Company leaders want answers as to why ITOps at its foundation is not working as efforts and budgets are mostly focused on modernization efforts.
This brings up an interesting conundrum – to modernize or not – or focus on getting foundational IT done and stabilized. We liken this scenario to flying at air speeds of 30,000 mph while trying to fix the plane in flight. For IT professionals, how do they balance priorities of right-sizing operations and digital transformation?
How does Netenrich solve the complexities around security and network operations?
As enterprises continue their digital transformation efforts, IT and security leaders will need to figure out how to resolve issues faster and know which critical assets are most at risk. This is where our Resolution Intelligence platform comes uniquely into play.
Our core function is focused on resolution, resolving critical issues, to keep operations running and prevent cyberattacks from escalating. IT teams can shift focus from monitoring everything to understanding critical threats that need priority attention. The platform integrates with existing tools, automates operations and correlates data to provide contextual intelligence for immediate action.
One of our customers, a global online automotive company, wanted to improve their operational efficiencies to meet the high transactional demands of their business. It wasn’t about buying more tools and instead, focused on their need to integrate systems and process. Our Resolution Intelligence platform added automation, monitoring and management capabilities so they were able run their networks at scale and at speed. We helped optimize their operations so there were able to quickly adapt and be more agile to disruptive IT challenges.
Whether it’s moving forward on digital transformation or improving foundational IT processes, we’re helping companies modernize operations, with a security first mindset, to achieve business stability, agility and resilience.