Q&A with Chetan Dube of IPsoft
VSM: Can you explain what IPSoft does?
CD: IPsoft uses expert systems to optimise IT management by replacing much of the routine support activity in a typical management environment with advanced automation. Our systems are designed to replicate IT engineer activities in incident, change and problem management at both the task and decision-making levels, and to continually learn from the environments they manage. We use these systems to deliver remote infrastructure management services across the technology and application stack, or offer them to clients as a managed platform for their own use. We share the learning from the environments we manage across all of our clients to ensure continuous and sustained improvement.
VSM: Your technologies reference autonomics a lot. Can you describe what that is a little bit more?
CD: Autonomics refers to the self-governing, self -healing nature of our expert systems. They have the ability to detect, diagnose, remediate and escalate events and incidents, to learn from what they experience, and to assimilate that learning into a shared knowledge library.
Autonomics has the ability to handle the following operations:
- Replicate the task execution of IT staff (e.g., what they actually do, what commands they type, etc.)
- Examine and replicate the decision-making processes (e.g., what processes should I follow, what should I do when, what am I authorized to do, when should I do it?)
- Escalation and interaction (e.g., who should I ask for approval and how should I proceed based on that approval?)
All of these actions are done following specific rules for the technology involved, the customer support processes and the context (e.g., time of day, day of week, other things that might be happening that might affect the decision).
VSM: What's the difference between autonomic and automatic solutions.
CD: Automation is a very small part of an autonomic solution – effectively the task execution piece. What sets autonomics apart is the automation of decision-making.
VSM: What is the next big step for autonomic technologies?
CD: Autonomic technologies have the ability to absolve mankind of mundane chores. This is true not only in IT support, but in any systematic business process. Our vision is that intelligent, well-trained and expensive human resource should focus on innovation and improvement, and that wherever possible, autonomic systems will manage low-level activity. Autonomics are making the offshoring of tasks – so often considered the solution to optimise ITO and BPO tasks - irrelevant.
VSM: Where do you see IPSoft heading in 2012?
CD: IPsoft is expanding rapidly. We will have operations in 9 countries by the end of 2011, and in 12 countries by the end of 2012. We will accelerate the adoption of autonomic technologies through both direct customer relationships, and indirectly through powering service providers and vendors.