When it comes to managing IT environments in schools, having the right observability tools is crucial. According to Prevost, schools should look for tools that can process, analyze, and route various types of data such as metrics, events, logs, and traces. This end-to-end visibility empowers ITOps, engineering, and security teams by providing them with shared data, context, and workflows to pinpoint the origin of a problem and its impact.
To achieve this level of visibility, higher education institutions should invest in observability solutions that can easily search and analyze unstructured data, which can then be turned into actionable insights. The ideal observability platform will offer real-time detection and guided root-cause analysis, enabling teams to quickly identify the source of a problem, understand why it occurred, assess its impact, and determine how to resolve it.
With the right tools at their disposal, leadership can focus on optimizing processes to maximize the benefits of these capabilities. Once IT teams have unified visibility, they should be empowered to detect and investigate business-impacting issues more efficiently. This shift from monitoring to true observability requires a high-level vision and strategy.
Ostrowski emphasizes that transitioning to true observability is not just a technological challenge but also a matter of changing people and processes. By breaking down silos within the IT team and aligning resources effectively, organizations can fully harness the power of observability. It’s also essential to involve non-technical stakeholders in the decision-making process.
University functions across the board can benefit from observability, so it’s important to include stakeholders from various departments in the implementation process. By taking a collaborative approach, schools can ensure that observability becomes an integral part of their overarching strategy.
