A New Hope for IT Operations: Data

Similar to the vast & expanding universe of galaxies far, far away, every business contains a complex IT system of servers, networks & applications that produce vast & expanding amounts of IT Operations Data. What is IT Operations Data? It's information generated by IT systems about their functionality such as log files, software errors, IT service tickets or network configuration. Insight from this data can help predict & prevent IT downtime, improve productivity & generate cost savings.


Hover over the blue icons to learn more about IT operations data and how it can help businesses. *

* information based on IBM client engagement.
Predictive Analytics
IT Operations data can be structured or unstructured, and can have meaning on its own or when combined with other pieces of data. Predictive analytics on this data can determine what information is relevant and decipher patterns and trends in IT malfunctions or successes, indicating how to predict and prevent service downtime.

IT System Data
A typical enterprise IT system generates more than 1.3 terabytes of Operations Data per day. What does 1.3 Terabytes of data look like? Imagine more than 60 piles of typed paper stacked as tall as the Eiffel Tower.

Daily System Events
More than 1 million "events" occur within an average sized IT environment every day – some of these alerts, warnings and updates are important to the performance of systems, some are not. Imagine receiving more than 1 million calendar alerts every day and not knowing which meetings were important.
Just a Minute
When an application malfunctions it can generate as much as 5 megabytes of Operations Data a minute in the form of log files. 5 megabytes is the equivalent of 2,500 pages of plain text—imagine trying to read and understand 2,500 pages of plain text a minute.

IT Costs
One hour of application downtime can cost a business $200,000. Improving IT Operations Data management can increase application control, automation and performance visibility, reducing outages by up to 40% and yielding more than 201% return on investment.

IT Operations Data Growth
In addition to the IT Operations Data organizations have been creating for years, new data is growing by 20% every year. IBM has over 80 petabytes of operational data between its own operations and cloud delivered services. One petabyte is the equivalent of 20 million four-drawer filing cabinets filled with paper.

A Closer Look
A telecommunications company, Consolidated Communications, expects to save $300,000 annually by better analyzing IT performance metric data. (estimated savings)