Welcome to Cherwell

If there's one thing we've learned about enterprise tech in the pandemic, it's the urgency of proper automation. I say "proper" because the remote work imperative exposed our weak links.

Our automation had room for improvement.Through eight years at diginomica, we've acknowledged that business transformation is a results business - and we set about documenting the use cases.

But we've also been willing to wade into the tech weeds that IT teams are grappling with. Why? Because a legacy back end is a cost and labor bog pit, sure to derail the business model changes on deck. We welcome partners that bridge that gap - enter Cherwell.

Cherwell might be unapologetically cloudy, but they are also unapologetically about ITSM (IT service management). At a time when ITSM vendors seem eager to move off into areas perceived as sexier or trendier, Cherwell wants to stay focused and have a modern ITSM conversation instead. They want to provoke questions like: what is the relevance of low code to workflow automation? Or, in the case of their debut article on diginomica, Can AIOps get us to better ITSM?

In that piece, Cherwell's Crystal Miceli reflects on the evolution of ITSM, from the early days where IT visibility meant tracking down the hidden gaming server in your co-worker's closet. One thing hasn't changed: the need for visibility into your mission critical IT systems. But as Miceli warns, cloud has brought new complexity:

As the architectures behind applications become even more complicated with the cloud, virtualization and shared services, manual documentation of dependencies is no longer a feasible option.

So how do you mitigate these risks proactively at a time when IT resources are already stretched thin?

First, the good news: the tooling has gotten a heck of a lot better also. But can AIOps help? Some IT leaders are likely wary. Miceli makes the AIOps case, including visual depictions of interdependencies, anomaly detection, and self-healing capabilities. But, as she warns, there are caveats:

After years of hearing AI touted as the solution to all IT problems, you'd be wise to be skeptical of vendor hype. Success with AITSM, DDM and AIOps solutions requires a practical implementation plan that includes process change... Adoption of these process changes is necessary to reap the benefits of the technology, so you have to plan for governance over process execution by the teams involved. 

As Miceli acknowledges, there is no silver bullet. The right approach reckons with people, process, and tech. But we can certainly learn from the projects underway. You can expect Cherwell to share fresh lessons on diginomica each month, and we'll see where the conversation takes us.

One thing's for sure: Cherwell promises to keep things interesting, with a new AIOps offering announced this week, and the announced merger plans with Ivanti also on deck. You can expect us to provide context on all that, as we track what's next for enterprise service and asset management. Welcome, Cherwell.