Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

ChatOps has become an integral part of software development and IT operations, as teams rely on automated notifications to take the place of manual alerts. In the past, if there was an alert, someone would need to manually find that notification. Then, they would have contact team members to notify them one by one so they could start working on a resolution. In this complex network of communications, it was easy to lose information, duplicate work, and simply waste time coordinating the team.

If you’re like me, you started your week by reading the Microsoft blog about Nobelium, an advanced-persistent-threat (APT) group that was actively targeting cloud service providers (CSPs) and managed services provider (MSPs) in a recent wave of supply chain attacks. Personally, I wasn’t terribly surprised. We all know by now that MSPs have a bullseye on them for adversaries wishing to target the supply chain. What’s different about this attack is the motive.

Retrospectives are a well-established resource in the software and systems engineering toolbox. From sprint retros through to post-incident reviews, we look back on our work to learn from it and to get better. We can apply the same ideas to our professional practice with a personal retrospective: writing an analysis of our experiences to learn as much as possible. We could look over a whole year of work, or focus more closely on a particular project.

Synthetic monitoring is automated testing of critical business transactions and user experiences. Synthetic monitoring helps businesses find, fix and prevent availability issues, performance issues and 3rd party vendors from giving you an insight into performance improvements that you can make to your website and supply chain to improve conversions and user happiness. Synthetic monitoring is also sometimes called user journey monitoring.

ML-enhanced endpoint protection can keep schools safe from cyberattacks. Here are three benefits district leaders will find when investing in this advanced technology. Long before the pandemic, K–12 cyberattacks were a serious concern. The shift to remote learning has only increased the danger.

Since schools transitioned to remote learning, districts have added or upgraded their IT education technology and monitoring tools to provide better outcomes for all. But it’s not necessarily a good thing. The saturation of edtech tools may be leading to wasted money, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities. In 2020, the deployment of edtech tools in schools increased by nearly 90% year-over-year.

Some of the best-selling books of all time are self-help books. Reading about the potential for change always intrigues people enough to buy the book. To succeed in enacting positive change, you must do just that—change. People’s habits are familiar and safe, and change requires effort down an unknown path. People aren’t sure of the outcome, and as a result, usually stick with the proven method—even if it’s what they’re trying to change.

Managing technology isn't your only responsibility as a CTO. You could be the CIO, Digital Enabler, Data Officer, and Engineering Leader all rolled up into one, whether you work at a startup, scaleup, or enterprise. Your role as a C-suite executive for engineering requires you to research and implement the newest, most efficient technologies. As CTO, you’re responsible for: The list goes on and on. That's why you, of all people, need the right tools to manage your vital role in the digital world.

Lisa Wolfe, product marketing director at ServiceNow, co-wrote this blog. The stream of global disruptions these past couple of years has not only put business continuity plans to the test, but has also tested the ability of organizations to simply survive. To operate at the “speed of a digital business” and to endure the next wave of unexpected change will require peripheral vision—the ability to help predict and fix issues before they impact employees or the business.

Cloud teams are busy. In fact, Virtana’s recently published State of Hybrid Cloud and FinOps survey found that 44% of respondents have deployed more than half of their workloads in a public cloud, and 88% have deployed more than one-quarter of their workloads in a public cloud. That’s a lot of migration, optimization, and management on the cloud team’s plate; and it’s not just for right now but for the foreseeable future.