IBM Unveils next AIOps platform built to simplify and strengthen mainframe operations: IBM Z Operations Unite
IBM just announced (link) the release of our latest IBM Z AIOps solution designed to simplify and strengthen your mainframe operations under a single, unified interface: IBM Z Operations Unite.
The size and complexity of IBM Z has outpaced new skill acquisitions.
The challenges mainframe teams face today are not a mystery. Reduced team sizes coupled with increasing complexity, more data sources than ever before, and the necessity to keep operations available and optimized in our 24x7 global economy ensure an endless chain of alerts and events.
Given the volume and complexity of data, human teams simply can’t process everything fast enough to keep up with the pace of modern business. And to make matters worse, the skills gap continues to see ever more experienced operators retiring and not being replaced.
This is where automation and AI come in. By using AI to analyze data and automation to handle repetitive tasks, organizations can gain better insights into their mainframe environment, improve efficiency, and reduce the manual effort required to manage and optimize operations
Siloed complexity is the problem. United simplicity is the solution.
IBM Z Operations Unite simplifies mainframe operations by unifying workflows, prioritizing events and assessing business impact.
It aggregates, correlates and contextualizes events and data to help teams make faster, more confident decisions - maximizing resiliency and reducing downtime within a single, streamlined solution.
To showcase this, let’s examine IBM Z Operations Unite game-changing values:
Noise-reduced anomaly detection
Leveraging the built-in grouping and correlation capabilities, the IBM Z Operations Unite will propose to a list of grouped events, ranked and rated by severity, that will reduce the number of alerts and problems that the operator must evaluate and save significant time during root cause analysis. Correlation and grouping of events are based on time, topology and recognized patterns.
A lab test conducted with one client’s production data showed a 9X reduction in terms of the number of problems needing to be evaluated. This allows the operator to:
1. focus on what matters the most first,
2. save significant time by avoiding false positive alerts,
3. solve the most critical problem faster, before they impact the business
Simplified diagnostic and root cause analysis
IBM Z Operations Unite provides a centralized dashboard that aggregates events across IBM Z, with the capability to drill down on the details of specific IT resources, providing the end user all the information needed for a simplified diagnostic.
In addition to the display of the most critical KPIs, a transaction-level topology view, dynamically updated and decorated with alerts detected, supports a faster and reliable impact analysis.
IBM Z Operations Unite provides built-in expert advice and adaptive remediation recommendations leveraging IBM watsonx™ technology for a conversational experience via embedded chat.
For every identified issue, Z Operations Unite offers expert advice on the possible causes, areas to examine for further analysis, and potential actions that can be taken to resolve the issue. Expert advice, supported by generative AI and built-in IBM Z expertise, provides critical insights into issues and actionable remediation advice.
This benefits all operators, regardless of skill level, but is of immense value to newer staff who now have expert advice at their fingertips. This allows them to resolve issues quickly and come up to speed on mainframe operations much faster than by traditional means.
Moreover, IBM Z Operations Unite provides a seamless integration with watsonx Assistant for Z for a conversational experience.
A chat window can be opened in any part of the product UI to start the conversation with the Z assistant, which can be enriched with custom specific RAG and zAIOps skills to have more tailored answers, identify the next steps, and recommended actions to solve issues.
Resolve issues directly from the interface
Finally, IBM Z Operations Unite provides ways to either solve the identified problem by issuing commands or to open a ticket to trigger a change (accordingly to the change management process in place in the user company), directly from the UI.
A built-in Integrated Command Console allows authorized users to issue commands to MVS and NetView® directly from the UI over the z/OS system to take actions and restore service.
If a change management ticket needs to be raised to have the change applied, an out-of-the-box integration with ServiceNow® is available as well to open in context a ticket on that platform.
In both cases, there is no need to open a different tool or to switch to another console to take these resolution actions, once again, saving time for the operator and ultimately reducing MTTR.
Why IBM Z Operations Unite
IBM Z Operations Unite brings value add to the 3 phases (detect-decide-act) of the AIOPs for IBM Z framework for the problem management and resolution.
Detect
IBM Z Operations Unite simplifies mainframe operations by grouping all your disparate data sources and alerts into a single interface, showing important connections, and identifying serious application risks.
Decide
IBM Z Operations Unite brings clarity to root cause analysis across the IBM Z stack and provides expert information and actionable recommendations to identified issues
Act
IBM Z Operations Unite allows you to act swiftly on recommendations and remediation steps, issuing commands and opening service tickets directly from the UI.
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