Cognitive Ops: Make Prediction a Priority say Forrester Research

David Arrowsmith • January 30, 2018

Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) people will be very conscious that the growth of technology, the sprawl of tools in most enterprise IT environments has already outstripped the capability of humans alone to monitor and operate it effectively.

Computer-based analytics are helping I&O react to and resolve problems faster, but predicting and preventing issues is the ultimate goal. Here lies the core benefit of Cognitive Operations.

Forrester Research defines Cognitive Operations as:

“Software that applies advanced analytics and machine learning to analyze historical IT operations data and make predictions that expedite management, speed problem resolution, prevent developing problems, and attach business significance to problems resolved or prevented.”

Forrester’s Vendor Landscape: Cognitive Operations report is a cross-market report on 28 vendor solutions (including us, Interlink Software) with predictive analytics capabilities.

Vendors with a predictive offering can be found in numerous markets – IT Operations Analytics (ITOA), Application Performance Management (APM), and Algorithmic IT Operations (AIOps).

The report helps I&O people assesses the benefits and opportunities of Cognitive Ops – taking the leg-work out of identifying those vendors with the capability to support I&O in preventing problems before they hit the business, reducing effort, reacting faster, and unlocking business meaning underlying technical events.

The Big Takeaways

Machine learning paves the way for predictive ITOps

IT operations management (ITOM) and APM tools are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), such as machine learning, to automatically build predictive models, reducing manual effort, prevent problems, and react faster.

Take that data scientist recruitment ad down!

Advanced analytics and machine learning combined in the form of a Cognitive Ops solution doesn’t take a data scientist to operate it – simple as that!

The time is NOW – start plotting your “predictive journey”

The research demonstrates that the predictive capabilities claimed by vendors aren’t just hype. Furthermore, embracing Cognitive Ops might well pave the way to ‘NoOps’ – whereby I&O people can finally free themselves of labour intensive, manual and error-prone work – bringing them more time be creative, innovative and add value to the business.

Click HERE  to buy your copy of the report.

Research led by Forrester’s
Eveline Oerhlich  and Mike Gualtieri

Contact us HERE to ask about our Predictive / Cognitive Ops capabilities

Click
HERE  for further analyst material featuring Interlink Software.

 

AI is rapidly becoming a bigger part of how IT Operations teams detect incidents, interpret signals
By david.arrowsmith • September 23, 2026
Discover how AI-driven observability combines trusted data and service context to help IT Operations teams prioritise issues and act with confidence.
Why Agentic AI Needs an Enterprise Control Tower
By david.arrowsmith • September 9, 2026
Discover why Agentic AI needs an Enterprise Control Tower to unify operational data, add Business Service context and enable trusted, explainable automation.
Choosing Enterprise Observability: Compliance, Security and the Enterprise Control Tower.
By david.arrowsmith • May 7, 2026
Explore how enterprise observability platforms support compliance, security monitoring, dashboards and AI-driven operations. Learn why modern IT teams are adopting enterprise control tower models with real-time visibility, explainable event intelligence and hybrid cloud observability.
Interlink Software's as enterprise observability platform for complex IT environment.
By david.arrowsmith • April 17, 2026
Features and benefits of Interlink Software as a best-in-class enterprise observability platform for complex IT environments?
Event Intelligence for Agentic IT Operations
By david.arrowsmith • March 17, 2026
Orchestrate AI agents with Interlink’s Event Intelligence platform. Enable autonomous, service-aware IT operations with full visibility, governance, and control.
By david.arrowsmith • February 6, 2026
Discover five proven Event Intelligence best practices for banking and financial services—aligning IT operations with business services, regulatory demands and measurable outcomes.
CTO working at desk analysis his Enterprises IT performance metrics
By david.arrowsmith • January 27, 2026
Event Intelligence Solutions are redefining how organizations manage complexity and risk across digital ecosystems. Their true power lies not only in detecting anomalies or suppressing noise, but in providing actionable, explainable intelligence that connects IT events to business impact.
By david.arrowsmith • January 20, 2026
Event Intelligence Solutions use AI to correlate events, cut noise, and protect critical services—helping enterprises act faster and ensure resilience.
Unified Observability: What It Is and Why It Matters for Large Enterprises
By david.arrowsmith • December 29, 2025
Unified Observability gives enterprises a single view of complex hybrid IT, cutting noise, improving insight and service.
Why Intelligent Data Fabric Architectures Matters Now
By david.arrowsmith • November 25, 2025
Learn how an intelligent data fabric unifies machine data, strengthens security and delivers timely insight to improve resilience and decision-making
Show More