Operational intelligence is an IT area responsible for defining the solutions, tools and methodology that will be adopted in order to create a monitoring standard, and consequently a standard for SLA consultation, reports and access to metrics and logs from the business platforms.
Among the functions of operational intelligence are:
1- Contemplate all layers of the business: Everything that is important for the functioning of the business must be mapped;
2- Define the appropriate tools for each area;
3- Creation and propagation of methodologies, procedures and technical actions;
4- Documentation for the implementation and use of the adopted tools.
The importance of monitoring
Metrics and logs collected by monitoring tools form the basis for a platform to evolve and have its incidents resolved.
The “real evidence” of the results of IT decisions. are taken from the dashboards provided by these tools.
Monitoring works 24x7 and when properly configured it is able to predict incidents and support the team.
In case of unavailability, it is able to alert the group responsible for the solution, and when mature, it can perform routine procedures, executing actions and interacting with the environment.
It is also the one that validates the SLA and feeds Management’s availability reports.
The implementation process consists of ensuring that all layers and applications are monitored and reporting correctly:
Whether cloud or on-premises, dashboards and reports must consider all the layers above.
Once this structure is set up, we must ensure that the monitoring is integrated with the other systems of the company. Examples: backup systems and systems, authentication systems and access groups.
This is an important moment, where the support of the main stakeholders, as well as a good relationship between areas count positively.
Using good tools, simple and automated implementation flows are important to ensure long-term success.
In this step, the main mission is to ensure that all areas know the importance of keeping this implemented base standardized, enabling standardized and centralized reports and dashboards.
When less is more. Management levels know what they need, and not bringing unnecessary information means agility and clarity.
One meeting is enough in order to find out what information is needed to help populate the KPIs.
The important thing is to ensure that, in the event of an incident, the data needed to investigate the problem will be present without delay.
The beginning and end of the cycle.
At this moment we take all the considerations, errors, improvements and new needs to our backlog. Defining times and priorities and we go back to step 1, then to step 2 and so on and on and on.
We hope that the reading was fruitful and that the benefits and importance of monitoring and an operational intelligence team became clear.
Gole relies on the Operational Intelligence service and has experience participating in and implementing monitoring systems both for operations that have an in-house or outsourced NOC (Network Operations Center), as well as companies that do not have a 24x7 team, although in both In the scenarios there are applications that are 24x7 and need an SLA greater than 99.8%.