How data consolidation drives DataOps & new use cases

The replay is live for an interesting Elisa webinar (here) where Asparuh (Aspe) Rashid and Guy Redmill discuss ways to link up data with performance management. Aspe works at Elisa Polystar which, of course, has deep telecoms roots. However, listening to the webinar made me realize that DevOps can drive IT organizations in many industries not only to make better choices about data consolidation and IT infrastructure, but also to deliver more use cases and better CX.

Aspe's presentation and subsequent Q&A session focused on data management solutions and their application in network performance and management. The main points of the presentation include:

1. The importance of ingestion and transformation in managing data: Aspe emphasizes the need to ingest and transform data from various sources, highlighting the necessity of having a vast library of connectors and parsers to handle different data formats. He stresses the need for configurable solutions to adjust to different data sources and stress the significance of data quality checks before storage.

2. Options for building or buying data solutions: The presentation outlines two paths. A company can build its own data management system by identifying data sources, finding tools with a broad range of connectors, and ensuring data quality. Alternatively, the company can buy a solution. Either way, some clients use open-source tools, even with an awareness of their drawbacks. Aspe also stresses the importance of having a clear scope for any project to prevent scope creep.

3. Addressing data silos and unification of data: A key challenge discussed is the consolidation of data to eliminate silos and the subsequent necessity of transforming and correlating data to make it usable, rather than just moving it into a single database. Aspe argues convincingly that simply consolidating data does not solve the problem of data silos.

During the Q&A, Aspe addresses several technical aspects of data management:

• Automatic adaptation to network upgrades: The Elisa Polystar solution can automatically update parsers and configurations when new data is encountered, ensuring that the system remains current with any changes in network data.

• Data quality and monitoring: Aspe stresses the importance of monitoring data flows and ensuring that all incoming data is processed correctly, even if files arrive late or out of order.

• Root cause analysis and data correlation: Visual tools and algorithms for root cause analysis are compelling in aligning people and correlating different KPIs, work logs, and other data sources.

• Application of generative AI: Generative AI is a potential tool for making data more accessible to users, allowing them to query data in natural language.

Throughout the webinar, Aspe acknowledges the complexity and scale of such data management projects but - and here is the good news - Elisa Polystar offers reassurance that with a clear project scope and gradual addition of capabilities, significant value can be realized, often as soon as within three to six months. The webinar closes by encouraging further innovation and exploration in correlating and analyzing diverse data sources to drive performance insights.

I really appreciated the encouraging and enagaing approach that Aspe took in the webinar. I know many companies struggle to ensure that DevOps teams align with business stakeholders' CX and value needs. Aspe's presentation emphasizes the need for strong data consolidation as a foundation that can accelerate development and uncover new use cases. That's good news for communcation service providers and also all development teams in complex, multi-system environments like the supply chain.

You can access the webinar online at: https://bit.ly/Asparuh