Networking

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Telco complaints are down 17% across Australia per 10,000 services to a total of just under 1.1 million, but the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has found the time taken for complaints to be resolved is spiking. Since the 2018-19 fiscal year, the weighted average days to resolve a complaint has moved from 8.2 days to 12.2 in 2020-21. Across 32 telcos measured in its report, ACMA found the median interval was 4.1 days, and the average was 5.4 days — numbers that were essentially steady compared to last year. The rate of complaints needing to be referred to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman Judy Jones, who will be leaving the post in March next year, has increased by 1.4 percentage points to 10.7% in the past year. “This suggests that some telcos are not handling complaints at all well, and other smaller telcos are in fact not recording complaints at all,” ACMA authority member Fiona Cameron said. “Seven smaller telcos have absurdly high escalation rates, just above 50%, which indicates that some complaints are not being recorded in the first place and only being logged when escalated to the TIO.” The seven telcos were not named in ACMA’s report, with the regulator saying it would be following up with the seven outfits. Overall, the number of complaints about NBN broadband dropped 36% to 84 per 10,000 services, with the most complained about technology being fibre to the basement (FttB) with 147 per 10,000 services, fibre to the curb (FttC) with 119, HFC with 93, and fibre to the node (FttN) with 77 complaints per 10,000 services.

However, the change in complaints was down across all NBN technologies, FttB was down 22%, FttC dropped 43%, HFC fell 53%, and FttN was down 28%. The least complained about NBN connectivity, satellite, had 27 complaints per 10,000 services and saw a fall in complaints of 59%. By category, of the 263,000 complaints related to the NBN, 92,700 were classed as other, 86,500 were related to faults, 68,400 were classed as connection complaints, and only 15,600 were related to speed. On Monday, the company responsible for the National Broadband Network revealed the allocation of its portable assets for what it termed as Australia’s “disaster season”. The company said it gained 58 new pieces of temporary infrastructure, at a value of AU$6 million. The pieces include multi-tech trailers that have a generator, battery, optional solar for power, and can connect to fibre to the node network, as well as have fixed wireless and HFC as a “bolt on”; wireless mast trailers that can replicate an 18-metre wireless network tower; hybrid power cubes that have generator, battery, and solar to keep fixed wireless towers operational when grid power is lost; and network on wheels trailers that operate as a small exchange to support all NBN technologies other than satellite. Victoria walked away with a pair of multi-tech trailers, a wireless mast trailer, and 10 hybrid power cubes; NSW received the same, minus the wireless mast trailer; Western Australia also received the same trailers as Victoria, but only four cubes; Queensland was allocated one network on wheels trailer, a pair of multi-tech trailers, and eight cubes; South Australia is much the same as Queensland but has five cubes; Tasmania gets three cubes, one network trailer, and one multi-tech trailer, and the Northern Territory gets one network trailer and one multi-tech trailer. NBN added it would be rolling out up to 2,000 disaster satellite service sites at emergency management sites and evacuation centres to offer satellite connectivity during an emergency. At the start of the month, NBN announced it was starting what it called a Remote Community COVID Emergency Wireless Trial that was looking at temporary connectivity for regional and remote locations with a majority Indigenous population. “At the request of the Central Darling Council and the local community, NBN Co and our partners are installing a temporary community Wi-Fi solution to areas of Wilcannia to support the community during the COVID-19 health emergency. It will support local people’s access online education and social services and is currently planned to be in place for approximately 90 days,” an NBN spokesperson told ZDNet. “We have worked closely with community elders and leaders, the local council and the NSW Department of Education on the solution and where it will be located. Nominated households will be supplied by the participating RSP the equipment they need to connect. NBN Co will not charge the RSP for the Wi-Fi solution to be provided.” Households needed to be nominated by council to receive a self-installed Wi-Fi kit. Related Coverage More

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AI and the Future of Business

Machine learning, task automation and robotics are already widely used in business. These and other AI technologies are about to multiply, and we look at how organizations can best take advantage of them.

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AI engineering, cloud-native platforms and autonomic systems were just a few of the trends that topped Gartner’s list of the strategic technology trends that organizations need to explore in 2022.Released on Monday at the Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo Americas, the list covers the tools and technology that will drive innovation in the next year. David Groombridge, research vice president at Gartner, said CEOs and boards are striving to find growth through direct digital connections with customers. CIOs’ priorities need to reflect the same business imperatives. “CIOs must find the IT force multipliers to enable growth and innovation, and create scalable, resilient technical foundations whose scalability will free cash for digital investments,” Groombridge said. “These imperatives form the three themes of this year’s trends: engineering trust, sculpting change and accelerating growth.”First on the list was generative AI, which Gartner described as machine learning methods that learn about content or objects from their data and use it to generate brand-new, completely original, realistic artefacts.Tasks like software code creation, drug development facilitation and targeted marketing can be augmented using generative AI. Gartner noted that there is also the possibility that generative AI is used for scams, fraud, forgery and political disinformation. Still, by 2025 the research institute expects it to account for 10% of all data produced, up from less than 1% today.Gartner said cloud-native platforms will also play a major role in delivering capabilities anywhere and everywhere next year as enterprises move away from “lift and shift” migrations. Gartner predicted that cloud-native platforms will serve as the foundation for more than 95% of new digital initiatives by 2025 — up from less than 40% in 2021 — because they use the core capabilities of cloud computing to provide scalable and elastic IT-related capabilities “as a service” to technology creators using internet technologies.

Autonomic systems were also featured on the list, with Groombridge noting that autonomic behavior has “already made itself known through recent deployments in complex security environments, but in the longer term, will become common in physical systems such as robots, drones, manufacturing machines and smart spaces.”Gartner described autonomic systems as “self-managing physical or software systems that learn from their environments.” “Unlike automated or even autonomous systems, autonomic systems can dynamically modify their own algorithms without an external software update, enabling them to rapidly adapt to new conditions in the field, much like humans can,” Gartner explained.Gartner also predicted that as the number of data and application silos continues to surge, there will be a need for data fabrics, which allow for “a flexible, resilient integration of data across platforms and business users.”With millions of people around the world still working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gartner explained that the distributed enterprise will most likely replace the traditional office-centric organizations of past years. By 2023, Gartner is expecting 75% of organizations that benefit from distributed enterprises to see revenue growth 25% faster than competitors.”This requires CIOs to make major technical and service changes to deliver frictionless work experiences, but there is another side to this coin: the impact on business models,” said Groombridge. “For every organization, from retail to education, their delivery model has to be reconfigured to embrace distributed services. The world didn’t think they’d be trying on clothes in a digital dressing room two years ago.” Decision intelligence, composable applications, hyperautomation, privacy-enhancing computation, cybersecurity mesh, AI engineering and “total experience” rounded out the list of tech trends coming in the next year. 

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Netgear was one of the first manufacturers to introduce a router supporting the new Wi-Fi 6E standard, with its Nighthawk RAXE500. The company has now brought the latest 2.4/5/6GHz wi-fi technology to its Orbi range of mesh networking systems.  The new system — the Orbi Quad-Band Mesh WiFi 6E System (RBKE963), to give its full name — is primarily aimed at home users but, like the business-oriented Orbi Pro, it does have the ability to create multiple networks for different tasks or different groups of users. And, with its support for both high-speed Wi-Fi 6E and multi-gig Ethernet, the Orbi RBKE963 provides performance that will be ideal for working from home, as well as many offices or public venues that need a wide-ranging mesh network.  Netgear’s Orbi Quad-Band Mesh WiFi 6E System comprises a primary router (middle, above) with a 10Gbps internet port, a 2.5Gbps Ethernet port and three Gigabit Ethernet ports, plus satellites (above right) with 1x 2.5Gbps and 3x 1Gbps ports. Wi-Fi 6E support delivers a 6GHz band on top of two 5GHz bands and one 2.4GHz band for total wireless throughput of 10.8Gbps.
Images: Netgear
Orbi RBKE693: now also available in black.
Image: Netgear
One obvious difference between the new Orbi and its predecessors is that it’s now available in both black and white, as Netgear says that many users have requested the additional black option to match their home decor. It’s slightly larger than its predecessors too, as the slimline upright units now house no less than 12 separate antennae in order to increase the network range and make the most of the greater speeds supported by Wi-Fi 6E.  Those speeds are pretty impressive too, as the quad-band Orbi uses Wi-Fi 6E technology to add a fourth wi-fi band on the 6GHz frequency, along with the existing two 5GHz bands and single 2.4GHz band already supported by Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 5. That 6GHz band alone supports speeds of up to 4.8Gbps, with an additional 2.4Gbps on each of the 5GHz bands, and 1.2Gbps on the 2.4GHz, to provide a total maximum speed of 10.8Gbps.  Netgear has also updated the Orbi’s wired connectivity, to keep pace with the improved wi-fi performance. As always, the Orbi systems consist of a primary router and a number of additional ‘satellites’, which link together to form the mesh network. The main router now provides a 10Gbps Ethernet WAN port for high-speed internet connections, and both the main router satellites also include one 2.5Gbps Ethernet port and three Gigabit ports for wired connections.Like the Orbi Pro models that are specifically designed for business users, this new Orbi model has the ability to create multiple networks (SSIDs). There is one network on the 6GHz band that can be devoted to new devices, such as smartphones and computers — or even Samsung’s new 8K OLED TVs — that support Wi-Fi 6E. One of the 5GHz bands provides the main, general-purpose network, with the second 5GHz band acting as a dedicated ‘backhaul’ that connects the router and satellites. Finally, the 2.4GHz band acts as an IoT network for devices such as smart lights and security cameras. 

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That high-end performance comes at a price, though. Due to ship at the end of October, the Orbi Quad-Band Mesh WiFi 6E System (RBKE963) currently costs a hefty £1,499.99 (inc. VAT), or $1499.99. That price is for a three-piece kit with one router and two satellites, which can cover areas up to 9,000 square feet.A three-piece Orbi Quad-Band Mesh WiFi 6E System (£/$1,499.99) can cover an area up to 9,000sq ft.
Image: Netgear
Netgear has told us that there’s a 2-piece kit with one router and one satellite planned for future release. It’s also worth noting that regulatory approval for use of the 6GHz band differs in the UK and US, so UK users may find that quoted speeds and coverage areas may differ when the Orbi RBKE963 goes on sale in the UK. RECENT AND RELATED CONTENT Netgear Nighthawk RAXE500 Tri-Band Wi-Fi 6E Router, hands on: High-performance, high-capacity  Netgear Nighthawk Wi-Fi routers go mesh  Netgear Orbi WiFi 6 AX4200, hands-on: Affordable WiFi 6 coverage for homes and businesses  Netgear Orbi Pro WiFi 6 (SXK80), hands-on: Premium mesh networking for small businesses and home workers  Best mesh Wi-Fi system 2021: Top routers compared  Read more reviews More

One of the world’s largest technology shows, GITEX, kicks off in Dubai this week. At the event, cloud communications provider Avaya introduced its Experience Builders program, which aligns its services, partners, and developers around creating customer and employee experiences. The new initiative is built on Avaya’s OneCloud, designed to be a composable back end to enable Avaya and its ecosystem to deliver new experiences. Composable software is a system design principle that deals with the inter-relationships of components. A highly composable system provides components that can be selected and assembled in various combinations to satisfy specific user requirements.The role of unified communications (UC) and contact center (CC) has changed over the past couple of years, driven by the pandemic. Prior to COVID-19, these applications were important but arguably not business-critical. Today, the world has changed, and more than half of all employees are working remotely for at least the time being, and customer interactions have shifted to being digital-first. A good way to think about the impact is that prior to the pandemic, communications tools were used by a subset of employees and customers; today, they’re used by almost all of them. Off the shelf UC and CC applications serve the needs of many individuals, but not all of them. Others require more customized experiences, which is why the communications industry has pivoted from selling products to platforms. One might look at Avaya OneCloud and consider it one of many cloud UC and CC solutions because it offers that functionality. In reality, OneCloud is a CPaaS (communications platform as a service) solution that lets Avaya and its partners build unique experiences. The companies Spaces meetings product is a great example. While it is a full-featured meeting solution, the product was “composed” using Avaya’s developer tools. In reality, Avaya has had a number of programs for different parts of its ecosystem to build on its platform. For example, DevConnect is its developer program for third-party ISVs, while technology partners might integrate using APIs. Multiple programs for different audiences are the norm in the industry right now, but Avaya is taking a different approach. Experience Builders creates a single program for its entire ecosystem, which unifies the knowledge base. Customers think about experiences one way, while partners might look at them differently. An ISV might have yet another view, as would technology vendors. With Experience Builders, anyone in that ecosystem can now harness the knowledge of this collective group. This streamlines development and, by sharing ideas across the ecosystem, Avaya can stimulate the creation of new experiences, which benefits everyone. What’s in the Experience Builders packageAvaya OneCloud is the foundation of Experience Builders, but the package also includes the following components: Artificial intelligence is a core component of Avaya’s products, and the program will expose its ecosystem to its AI partners such as NVIDIA, Google, Nuance, and AWS. Integration tools and services. The program includes more than 40 APIs to connect existing Avaya systems with new cloud applications that meet the demands of hybrid working. The Avaya customer base is the largest in the communications industry, and this integration enables the Experience Builders audience to build on that base. Knowledge and insights. The program will include an Avaya Experience Builders Research Library that contains information on AI, hybrid work, cloud, and other topical trends. As the industry changes, Avaya will add to this knowledge base. 

Because the program brings together the existing ecosystem, Experience Builders currently includes more than 250 technology partners, 32,000 DevConnect companies, and 154,000 registered developers — with 24,000 of these using OneCloud CPaaS and 7,200 channel partners and agents. Typically, when vendors build an ecosystem program, the first few years bear little fruit because the membership needs to be built from zero. In Avaya’s case, the company can get off to a running start because of the programs it had in place. In addition to stimulating more modernized thinking, Experience Builders solves some fundamental challenges facing organizations today — one of which is lack of developer talent, particularly with small and medium-sized businesses. The Avaya program provides extensive support to businesses of all sizes, including pre-built apps that can be quickly tailored to create a unique experience. Also, Experience Builders should enable its ecosystem to realize a much faster time to value through pre-built integrations, app connectors, and workflows. Lastly, the program helps with one of the biggest but underappreciated challenges facing companies today, and that’s tying on-premises systems to the cloud. The cloud is all the rage today, but most established organizations just can’t move everything to the public cloud overnight. Experience Builders contains a library of hybrid cloud services that solve many application and security issues. At GITEX, Avaya has several composable experiences on display from all different regions of the globe. While the formal program is new, Avaya has been working this way for some time. An education vendor, U.S.-based Toolwire, has integrated Avaya’s UC product, Spaces, into its learning product to bring asynchronous and synchronous education together. Dubai-based EMAAR built a digital real estate product that leverages Spaces video inside-contact center application. Nuuday, Denmark’s largest provider of broadband, communications, and entertainment services, launched an AI-based voice bot, Josefine, using Avaya OneCloud CCaaS and Google Cloud Contact Center AI to optimize customer experience based on customer interactions. These are only a few of the experiences that were quickly built through the program. Communications and collaboration tools are core to digital transformation, but realizing the value of UC and CC requires a different type of thinking. Instead of focusing on products, developers, and partners, customers must think about how to deliver the experience people want when they want it. Avaya Experience Builders enables the company’s large ecosystem to make this pivot in a programmatic way that enables them to capitalize on the current experience economy. For Avaya, this initiative is critical in repositioning the company. It’s the industry’s oldest and most established communications company, but that’s a double-edged sword. While this gives it a degree of gravitas that few vendors can match, it often gets pigeonholed as a legacy compared to its much younger peers. Experience Builders changes the positioning of Avaya and aligns it with current trends, such as customer and employee experience. During the past several years, it has revamped its product line into a composable application framework, and now it has the right program in place.

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Image: Fire and Rescue NSW
The deployment of new drones, cells on wheels, and vehicles with built-in Wi-Fi will form part of the New South Wales government’s AU$57.4 million investment into arming firefights with new equipment.Under what the state government is calling the connected firefighter package, firefighters will have access to drones that can provide images and data from incidents in real-time that can be used to assist in incident planning, and for chemical and gas detection; cells on wheels equipped with communication technology to provide power, especially in remote parts of the state without coverage; vehicles with built-in Wi-Fi that can provide mobile 4G network in remote locations where satellite connection is limited.Fire and Rescue NSW mobile command centres will also receive upgrades to ensure there is communication between incident management teams and firefighters during incidents. “What is apparent is that our emergency services are entering a tech boom, one which rightly puts NSW ahead of the pack this bushfire season,” Minister for Police and Emergency Services David Elliot said in a statement on Friday. “These assets will ensure our first responders are safe as they enter dangerous and volatile fire grounds to protect their communities.”The investment is part of the state government’s overall AU$480 million response to the independent NSW bushfire inquiry following the 2019/20 Black Summer Bushfires. The inquiry underscored a need to equip firefighters with more advanced technology, such as drones, remote sensors, data science, and artificial intelligence, to help them better understand, model, and predict bushfire behaviour, and respond more quickly.A total of 76 recommendations were made and the state government have accepted them all.

Last October, the NSW government had already allocated AU$192 million to arm firefighters with new equipment and upgrades to the existing aerial fleet, emergency infrastructure, and Fires Near Me app.The state government also announced as part of the 2021-22 Budget that it would direct a total of AU$28 million over four years into research and development of new technologies and industries to help New South Wales tackle future bushfires.Specifically, this included establishing a bushfire technology network for researchers, investors, and industry, as well as work with local small businesses to develop and commercialise bushfire technologies through an early-stage Bushfire Technology Fund and ensure the new technologies are tested by NSW’s frontline bushfire services.Related Coverage More

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Superloop announced on Monday morning it would be divesting its Hong Kong business and parts of its Singapore business for AU$140 million to Columbia Capital and DigitalBridge. As part of the deal, Superloop has retained 15-year right of use on the existing and potentially expanded Singapore and Hong Kong networks. The company said this would allow it to continue to offer end-to-end services on the Indigo submarine cable between Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore. The duo making the purchase will have a preferential deal on Indigo access, while Superloop will operate and support the Singapore network for at least three years at a cost of AU$1.5 million to the buyers. The deal is expected to be completed early next calendar year. “I recognised when I joined Superloop that one of our great opportunities was to look at the invested capital of the business and where appropriate, recycle it and re-invest in areas that will drive greater shareholder returns,” Superloop CEO and managing director Paul Tyler said. “This sale of our Hong Kong business and select Singapore assets, at a premium to their carrying values, allows the company to release significant shareholder funds and redeploy them into more strategically aligned assets, higher growth opportunities and markets.” The company is claiming a 30% premium on the sale from its AU$108 million carrying value.

Elsewhere on Monday, Spirit Technology Solutions, the company formerly known as Spirit Telecom, has sold its consumer assets for AU$5.1 million to DGTek. The company said it would book AU$2.5 million in profit from the sale. “The consumer internet business is not critical to future operations and represents less than 2% of Spirit’s revenue,” Spirit told the ASX. For its part, DGTek said the purchase would take its footprint up to 35,000 premises. Spirit also said it was considering several non-binding proposals to sell its fixed wireless towers. Related Coverage More

Pretty, isn’t it?
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Occasionally, you just have to admit why you did something you never thought you’d do.

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Here, then, is what happened.I happened upon the tale of Google telling a European court something it thought was embarrassing. Embarrassing for Microsoft, that is.Google’s lawyer, Alfonso Lamadrid told the court: “We have submitted evidence showing that the most common search query on Bing is, by far, ‘Google,'” He added: “People use Google because they choose to, not because they are forced to.””Oh, ho, ho,” I snorted to myself. “Well, how archly arrogant of Google.”This was closely followed by: “Bing? Bing? I wonder what Bing’s like these days.”

Google is, of course, a verb and a habit. You go there because you go there, because that’s what you do, because that’s what everyone does.Whereas Bing incites the thought: “I can’t even remember the last time I looked at Bing.”I had to look it up. You can do that when you write columns. It was January 2020, when I asked both Google and Bing whether Google was better than Bing. (Answer: Shruggy-shouldered emoji.)So when Google’s lawyer came over all haughty-taughty I thought I’d take another look at Microsoft’s search engine.And what a peculiar sight. Or site.Where Google’s home page is pale tending toward Ted Williams, here was an enticing explosion of color. This was actually moving. This was welcoming. This made me want to search for things. But first, though, it made me utter a deeply felt sound that was somewhere between a hiccup and an expectoration.For there on the page was an instruction from Microsoft: “Switch to the latest browser recommended by Microsoft.”Regular readers will know that Microsoft’s constant nagging to download its every product suffocates. It’s like going out with someone on just one date and they keep texting you to wonder if you should move in together.It’s even worse when you’ve already downloaded the particular Microsoft product and like it, yet the company keeps nagging you to download it.Oh, do stop.
Screenshot by ZDNet
What was curious, though, about the latest Binged nag was that it had the Edge logo, but didn’t mention the name. Could it be that some users might think Microsoft was recommending Firefox?In any case, can you just give it a rest, Microsoft? Can you let me decide whether I even like Bing before you start to pester me with more of your desperate entreaties? (I know the answer is no, but I can still ask, surely.)Still, I quickly filled in the search box and discovered that the results were, in large part, much more recent that I’d previously associated with Bing. In some cases they were more recent than a simultaneous, comparable search on Google. In some cases Google was appreciably badder than Bing. (Oh, come on. I had to.)

I drifted away heartened by Bing’s look, yet annoyed by Microsoft’s pestering.A few days later, I went back to Bing. Again, the attractive home page welcome. As well as a peculiar display of stories, with headlines such as “Clipboard hits fan,” “Files defamation suit” and “Alaska’s fattest bear.”Is this what Microsoft thinks moves me? Silly sports stories, lawsuits and fat animals? It seems so.Naturally, I clicked on the fattest bear story. Naturally, Microsoft began to annoy me again. This was so, so petty. But once I’d looked at the search results for Alaska’s fattest bear, the back button didn’t work. It was clear Microsoft wanted me to search some more, instead of going back to the home page to look at the gorgeous scenery. This was so utterly pointless and something Google doesn’t do.I got back to the pretty home page by clicking on the Bing logo. I scrolled down some more and it really was quite absorbing. For example, stories from that particular day in history. Not one included a fat animal, though one was about a blackballed billy goat that cursed the Chicago Cubs in 1945. It could have been a large goat, I suppose.Yet scroll to the bottom and what do you find? Another nag: “Make Bing your homepage.” This was accompanied by the tender words: “Experience beauty every day.”I want to do that. I do. This is my goal in life. But not in this context: “Never miss a moment and keep search at your fingertips. Just set Bing as your browser’s homepage with a few easy steps!”Please, Bing, let me like you first. Please let’s go on a third date. Then a fourth. One day, I might fall in love with you. One day. More

AIOps (AI for IT operations) adoption is on the rise as organizations invest in AI to make their IT ops smarter, faster, and more secure. Those who have adopted AIOps view the technology as no longer a nice-to-have but a necessity in the post-pandemic, work-from-home era. In this new era, IT leaders are tasked with managing third-party cloud applications from devices and remote workers scattered across numerous locations.The insights come from a recently published State of AIOps Study, conducted by ZK Research, sponsored by Masergy, a software-defined networking (SD-WAN) services company. In August 2021, ZK Research surveyed more than 500 IT decision-makers in the U.S. across seven industries. IT decision-makers believe AIOps offers their organization several business benefits, including improved productivity, cloud application performance, and security. The majority (94%) of the respondents believe it’s important or very important for AIOps to manage network and cloud-app performance.AIOps continuously monitors app performance using ML algorithms by assessing bandwidth usage patterns, identifying anomalies, and predicting outages. Masergy, for example, has embedded AIOps directly in the application layer of its newly enhanced AIOps platform to help IT teams improve cloud app performance on global networks. AIOps starting to reach the massesAIOps adoption is starting to reach the masses, with network and security automation as the key drivers. One of the more interesting findings is that 64% of organizations claim to be already using AIOps. This number first seemed high to me, but I believe that’s because a number of organizations are using tools that claim to be AIOps but are simply rules-based engines. It’s important to understand that AIOps is not an upgraded management console or fancy SIEM (Security Information and Event Management). It’s a data-driven application or service that goes through a training process and then is restrained over time. It’s critical that buyers do their due diligence and ensure they are using a true AIOps tool and not one that’s just branded AI.Another interesting data point is that 55% of organizations are using AIOps across both network and security, meaning more than half of companies want to bring security and networking together. This is a trend the industry has been watching for a decade or more, and it hasn’t come to fruition yet. Now that digital businesses are network-centric, securing an organization should be done at the network level. It would have been nice to see this number higher, but 55% is certainly moving the industry in the right direction. 

Also, 84% see AIOps as the path to a fully automated network environment, and 86% expect to have a completely automated network within five years. It’s good to see respondents understand that today AIOps can’t deliver a fully self-driving network, but it’s a step along the way. A good analogy is to think of AI in automobiles. Today, there are loads of AI features, such as lane change alert and autopilot, that make driving safer, but a fully autonomous vehicle remains a vision. IT pros need to think of AIOps as a tool that makes their jobs easier today, but they still should plan for automation. Start with SD-WAN and work toward AIOpsThe best way for organizations to fully benefit from AIOps is to invest in SD-WAN and secure access service edge (SASE), which combines elements of SD-WAN and network security into a single cloud-based service. When organizations adopt SD-WAN, and ultimately SASE, they gain virtualization and orchestration capabilities that are necessary for managing distributed networks and security policies. Also, SD-WAN and SASE combine network and security data, making it easier to coordinate security changes with network updates. Legacy networks aren’t designed for AI or centralized intelligence. AIOps is only as smart as the data it is fed, so it can’t become fully automated when used on a network that’s not managed using software. SASE provides a single converged platform where AIOps can access data across both the network and security to automate IT processes. Most (77%) organizations agree that AIOps performs better with a SASE architecture, in which SD-WAN and security are combined in one platform.More than two-thirds (73%) of the study participants believe IT should be investing in SD-WAN modernization and virtualization tools in preparation for AIOps. The other top two investments required to become AI-ready are cloud migration (67%) and training for AI models (61%).However, AIOps migration involves more than just deploying tools. Half of organizations cite eliminating system fragmentation as a major AIOps challenge. AI shouldn’t be fragmented across multiple tools, but rather AIOps and SASE should work together to provide overarching insights. The good news is organizations trust AIOps tools to create fully automated systems. The majority (97%) of the respondents are confident in these tools. For 65% of organizations buying and implementing solutions, AIOps features drive their selection. Meanwhile, 50% deploy AIOps using a fully managed or co-managed service.As is the case with any type of automation, AIOps requires reframing of processes, roles, and responsibilities. Organizations should create their own IT operations playbooks to train an AIOps engine. When choosing a solution, ZK Research recommends asking vendors — preferably not incumbents — for AI efficacy rates and how those are increasing over time. Every organization should have an AIOps strategy to avoid being left behind. More