AIOps is a potentially tautological term.
While we understand Artificial Intelligence (AI) and operations (Ops) as distinct entities, we might normally think of developer (Dev) and DevOps as a cultural workplace approach and discipline that would stand to benefit from AI acceleration.
But AIOps is not AI for DevOps, as such.
Instead, AIOps is Ops for AI i.e. it is the use of systematic operations team-based actions (by sysadmins, DBAs, testers and the rest of the usual Ops suspects) that fall under the purview of Ops, but here focused on making AI better and more accurate through tight control of Machine Learning (ML) data pipelines, which ultimately feed AI engines.
Who does AIOps then? Many vendors exist in this space and among them we find Avantra.
AIOps platform for SAP
Describing itself as an AIOps platform for SAP operations automation, the company has now announced the launch of its latest software release, Avantra 23.
The updates deliver service quality improvements for SAP operations, with ready-to-use workflow automation templates, including SAP system refresh, automated SAP security analysis.
With the rise of hybrid architecture in enterprise landscapes, there is growing complexity in SAP operations, making the need to save time ever more important.
The Avantra 23 platform update gives businesses that rely on enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems something that nothing else can – service quality of ERP operations.
John Appleby, Avantra CEO, asserts that “There is so much work to do in enterprise IT operations and not enough people to do it. So we need to be thinking about them as automators rather than operators. That is the talent transformation that has to happen in our industry.
“The biggest challenge for business automation is that key talent holds all the knowledge about the activities which an organization wants to automate and are also the busiest. With Avantra 23, we are solving this paradox by automating repetitive monitoring and maintenance activities and providing a foundation that enables the automation native to rise above the manual work that holds them back,” said Appleby.
Enabling hyperautomation
The enhanced automation engine provides updated customizable workflow templates and the ability to automate system refresh, creating time for the operations team to focus on greater business value projects that deliver shareholder value, revenue and profitability.
Speaking at the tech company’s customer summit in October, Appleby said that just have to prioritize automation. That also requires the need to give ERP operations teams a little space to put in automation, because it will (arguably) give back benefits several times over.
Did someone say Sybase?
“Everything Avantra automates pays back by making your most critical assets less busy. System refreshes that previously took four days of complex manual operations are now automated and completed within a few hours, said Avantra CTO, Bernd Engist. “Our fully automated system refresh ability now brings support for Oracle and Sybase databases, in addition to SAP HANA – a major migration project for many customers right now.”
Avantra customers have always been able to integrate with many ITSM solutions, including ServiceNow. Avantra 23 now harnesses the platform’s SAP automation capabilities to allow customers to connect other workflow and automation systems, such as Red Hat’s Ansible.
This integration, developed in partnership with Red Hat, enables customers to swiftly build and deploy SAP automation solutions as part of any existing automation strategy.
Avantra 23 is available in Standard, Professional and Enterprise editions
While the Professional edition adds the enhanced automation engine, the Enterprise edition provides automation templates and Red Hat Ansible integration alongside the existing SAP HotNews analysis and AI predictive analytics introduced in Avantra 21.11.
