Operations | Monitoring | ITSM | DevOps | Cloud

As January 2025 draws to a close, the challenges of 2024 still resonate. Last year was exceptionally turbulent for both businesses and individuals, driven in large part by geopolitical tensions, the cost-of-living crisis, and widespread economic uncertainty. According to November ONS figures, 57% of businesses reported experiencing turnover challenges, with 23% citing economic uncertainty as the primary cause.

The evolution of retail is parallel to the change in customer expectations. With the advent and rise of online shopping, the phenomenon today includes delivery moving home, more abundant product offerings, and shopping brought closer and closer for the customer. Since that's the situation, the retailers are moving away from this type of shopping and are nowadays making use of dark stores-an interesting concept that is gradually re-landscaping the face of the retail industry.

Effective management of software assets is an essential part of running a modern business. With increased reliance on technology and software, organizations need to ensure that their software is used efficiently, in compliance with licensing agreements, and supports overall business objectives. This is where Software Asset Management (SAM) comes in. With software asset lifecycle management, companies will find a reduction in operations and eliminate unnecessary costs.

Time series data is everywhere—from IoT sensors and server metrics to financial transactions and user behavior. To collect, store, and analyze this data efficiently, you need tools purpose-built for the job. That’s where the TIG Stack comes in: Telegraf for data collection, InfluxDB for storage and analytics, and Grafana for visualization. Together, these tools offer a powerful solution for real-time analytics, observability, and monitoring.

Wilfried Roset is an engineering manager who leads an SRE team and he is a Grafana Champion. Wilfried focuses on prioritizing sustainability, resilience, and industrialization to guarantee customers satisfaction. Nowadays databases are commonly used to build information systems. Relational or NoSQL, self-managed or as-a-service, those databases often play a critical role in the overall health of your applications.