Technology evolves at a breakneck speed. Previous IT investments can become outmoded in short order. When it comes to autonomic technology, companies don’t have to replace their legacy systems, they can intelligently connect them to update their functionality with a single upgrade.
Autonomics can upgrade your older systems by unifying them
Every consumer knows the underlying anxiety that accompanies buying a new smartphone – it’s inevitable that a more functional and desirable model will eventually be unveiled and bring about an expensive case of buyer’s remorse. Similar anxieties plague corporate decision makers responsible for enterprise-scale IT purchases, except their buyer’s remorse can be measured in millions of dollars and impact an entire organization.
Therein lies one of the inherent benefits of one of the most promising trends in enterprise tech, autonomics. While autonomic systems like Amelia AIOps (formerly 1Desk) can take over the functionality of existing platforms, companies can also use them to essentially upgrade or augment older solutions with integrated intelligent functionality. By connecting different business systems into a unified whole, autonomics can enhance legacy systems and make organizations more efficient overall.
Autonomics to the rescue
Autonomics refers to complex digital systems which, as the name implies, operate with a high-degree of autonomy. Autonomics is more than simple automation, it refers to systems that dynamically resolve problems and self-manage with strictly limited human input.
For example, an autonomic system in charge of maintaining a data center can continually monitor servers to make sure they are operating at full capacity and, if a problem is discovered, alert support personnel for remediation. Should a server undergo a sudden catastrophic breakdown, the system can proactively alert support personnel to switch over workloads to back-up servers until replacement hardware is installed. The important takeaway is how the autonomic system can handle various tasks simultaneously and intelligently prevent operational disruptions. This is the kind of value that solutions such as IPcenter deliver.
By connecting different business systems into a unified whole, autonomics can enhance legacy systems and make organizations more efficient overall.
Companies in various vertical industries are exploring the increased efficiencies enabled by self-managing autonomic solutions, but may be wary of replacing their existing platforms that otherwise work just fine. (Why fix what’s not broke?) This is where an autonomic solution such as AIOps can help. AIOps, through its autonomic technology, can integrate IT management end-to-end, tying into existing management frameworks and products, while also automating support issues that cross those multiple systems. Adding an autonomic solution to legacy systems or existing IT management products has inherent benefits – chief among them that companies protect and enhance previous tech investments while gaining new autonomic capabilities. In addition, many companies have spent years building out ITIL frameworks and procedures for their systems. AIOps is fully ITIL compliant and follows ITIL workflows; using the platform only heightens the importance of ITIL within an organization, not diminish it.
- For Further Reading: AIOps Brings Advanced Self-Healing to Autonomics
By connecting once-disparate systems into a unified platform through autonomics, an entire company can be made more productive. For example, when a new hire is entered into an existing HR system such as Workday, an automation within AIOps could automatically procure new system login credentials through ServiceNow as well as designate a laptop for the employee in IPcenter. In this example, the company’s existing platforms remain in place, but automated workflows connect them into a larger operation and lead to increased system-wide efficiencies.
An intelligent interface
An autonomic infrastructure is only one piece of what modern AI solutions can offer to existing systems. A digital colleague like Amelia adds an intelligent interface to enterprise system (or to the unified network as a whole). Users interact with Amelia using natural conversational language, and her deep integrations allow her to execute complex actions within the autonomic framework.
For example, a HR rep could simply tell the system “Please provide MacBook Pros for new hires in our graphics department.” Amelia would create and execute automated workflows between the various systems needed to complete this task (procurement, asset management, IT support, etc.) By adding an intelligent interface with direct lines to the autonomic framework, older systems are imbued with a new dimension of functionality.
Investing in autonomics results in an evolution, not an elimination, of previous technology investments. Autonomics allows existing IT systems to generate business value that would previously have been unattainable.
