Management Simplified: Boost Your Data Pipeline Automation

A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a service provider and a customer that outlines the service's quality, availability, and responsibilities. SLAs are a way to define what both parties can expect when contracting for a service.

Some people in IT think they do not have formal SLAs (trust me—I have met them), and there may be no formal or contractual defined service levels. Still, most business-related process managers have a responsibility to provide the business with data, reports, and other outcomes based on agreed-upon times, while meeting expectations for quality.

One of the most prevalent examples in today’s world are with data pipelines. Data drives the business—from order processes, material management, and inventory, to invoicing and billing. Customer insights and marketing depend on consumer patterns and sentiment data, and artificial intelligence (AI) relies heavily on data, too. Those new AI-driven bots rely on good, qualitative data to make the proper recommendations. This trend started with databases, moved to data warehouses, and is now moving to cloud-based data lakes.

Data is everywhere, and the teams tasked with upholding these data pipeline pacts often contend with numerous “hidden” or micro-SLAs within those formalized agreements. Data relies on multiple tools, such as extract, transform, and load (ETL) products; cloud-based data transformation offerings; and predictive AI and machine learning tools. Similarly, some teams manage internal SLAs and their dependencies.

No matter the use case or definition, SLAs don’t come with gray areas: Either they’re met, or they’re breached. The repercussions for missed SLAs can be severe: financial loss, reputational damage, legal consequences, and loss of competitiveness, among others.

To stay with our example, data teams must possess a comprehensive view of all tasks that underpin their SLAs (both formal and implied) across multiple technology silos, including in the cloud and on premises. It is only with this visibility that teams will be able to sidestep these negative outcomes and potentially even optimize service delivery. Unfortunately, few teams have such clarity, and they regularly pay the price.

The scope of the SLA visibility issue

While most teams try to utilize an arsenal of tools to gain visibility, the data indicates that these solutions frequently fall short…by a lot.

According to a recent survey:

• 98% of respondents indicated that delays and issues responsible for interrupting or preventing the completion of automation triggered SLA non-compliance. (These issues can include unnoticed connectivity issues, connected systems down for an update, failure to remove test scripts, slow-loading environments, mistakenly deleted files, silos, and so on.)
• 61% stated that SLA breaches occur monthly.
• 68% admitted they don’t have the advanced analytics required to predict when a given automation will encounter an issue that interrupts it or prevents its completion—which would have enabled them to prevent the SLA from breaking.

Needless to say, this implies deep-seated issues in the domain of data pipeline automation.

The cause of these issues traces directly back to fragmented visibility and tool silos. In fact, 80% of companies juggle three or more automation solutions. This results in business processes being spread across multiple platforms, which makes it difficult for team leaders to do end-to-end monitoring. Consequently, teams in most companies have to resort to war room meetings or, in a post-Covid world, Zoom calls, only to find all steps worked. (I call it the “not my stuff” syndrome, where people lose their view of the whole picture and only focus on their little piece of the world). Invariably, the duct tape between the different processes is to blame.

This fractured visibility leaves IT departments playing whack-a-mole, scrambling to uphold expected service levels or ensure various dependencies get completed in time without knowing which are at risk of exceeding expected runtimes.

Real-world impacts of broken SLAs

This SLA visibility problem may sound abstract, but it carries concrete consequences.

Picture a global financial firm, one whose executives must make lightning-quick decisions regarding capital allocation. Doing so effectively relies on daily liquidity reports. These reports help elucidate the firm’s financial position and ensure compliance with regulatory policies.

To inspire investor confidence, the C-suite must know they can depend on the accuracy and timeliness of their own internal reporting.

Now, imagine snags in the company’s fragmented automation systems. Without centralized visibility, these issues result in overnight processing errors. Come morning, the reports remain incomplete or may be inaccurate, leaving leadership to fly blind. They must then spend valuable time apologizing to clients and struggling to determine their liquidity status…or worse, losing revenue on delayed market trades.

This chaos? The result of SLA breaches caused by broken processes.

A three-headed monster: Automation teams’ challenges

It’s tempting to blame the automation team for these shortfalls, but automation groups face three challenges when responding to these snags:

• Alert storms—Teams that employ disparate tools to manage their workflows face a bevy of warnings, each with a unique source. This results in scores of duplicate notifications, further complicating the struggle to identify the root cause amid the cacophony.
• Murky data landscape—A piecemeal configuration of automation solutions around data processing generates mountains of information, each with its format, access options, and so on. Drawing meaningful conclusions from such a gargantuan data pool is no easy task. Teams end up reviewing the output of an ETL tool to find out that the source data a few steps prior was flawed. Even more difficult? Pinpointing ways to improve SLA compliance.
• Sluggish coordination—A web of different platforms erects barriers to seamless communication across departments and teams (the proverbial duct tape). Without the means to quickly and efficiently share insights and methods, effective collaboration continually seems out of reach.

With these headwinds, teams may struggle valiantly to maintain service standards, but SLA violations (and their consequences) remain inevitable. Moreover, without extensive visibility and management capabilities, teams cannot identify when jobs begin trending toward issues with gradually longer runtimes.

While it’s often true that at least one team member possesses a holistic understanding of the entire workflow, it’s a supremely fragile arrangement—and one that falls apart following their departure.

A comprehensive, end-to-end view of SLAs

These issues cry out for the same solution: end-to-end visibility. That’s precisely what Broadcom delivers. Leaders can instantly survey their entire task ecosystem using its comprehensive, single-pane-of-glass view.

Armed with these newfound insights, they can:

• React swiftly and decisively to impending SLA breaches
• Identify fresh opportunities for optimization

Such an elevated perspective also helps illuminate previously concealed “job paths.” (These can include invisible dependencies that are not defined within your automation tool or tools, such as how often does a backup, security scan, or file transfer lock a file or table, slowing down processing.) These hidden paths cause greater failure risk, as no one is aware of them. Once these paths are identified, leaders can then take corresponding precautions.

Predictive alerting

Too little, too late—that is usually the problem with alerting. Alerting is reactive, as it is based on the now and does not consider historical patterns. In addition to shining a light on shadowy processes, Broadcom’s solution offers users the power of predictive alerting. In short, the solution gives the gift of advance warning.

Because it views tasks relative to the entire business process (not simply as isolated jobs) and compares them to historical patterns, Broadcom’s solution suite can sound the alarm whenever an issue threatens an SLA.

This head start buys teams time to effectively:

• Coordinate resources
• Brainstorm solutions
• Tackle the issue before it impacts operations
• Warn the business about the issue and stop them from making decisions based on faulty or incomplete data

It’s no secret: businesses that take a proactive approach typically outshine those who are constantly reacting. Proactivity can help drive innovation, as it frees up time lost to reactive fire drills and constantly keeps the lights on. Broadcom’s capabilities place the business’ problem solvers firmly in the driver’s seat.

Historical data archive

Companies that leverage high-quality data win themselves an edge in the marketplace. While data capture plays a critical role in this process, decision-makers will struggle to effectively use it without a streamlined way to digest this information.

Fortunately, Broadcom’s solutions:

• Maintain a comprehensive data archive
• Provide a crystal-clear display interface and reporting that are decoupled from tools and applications
• Feature a self-service dashboard for simple access

This helps leaders quickly grasp their processes’ “critical path” (i.e., the most time- and cost-efficient collection of independent steps necessary to complete a given job), even amidst evolving circumstances. Similar to an athlete’s habit of reviewing footage of their at-bats or drives to the basket, it helps highlight subtle (but impactful) complications or flaws in the approach. It’s common knowledge that patterns emerge easier in visual inspection than in sifting through rows and rows of Excel sheets and text files.

Equipped with this clarity, decision-makers can apply their wealth of experience and strategic know-how to generate novel and competitive solutions.

Discover the path to flawless SLA compliance

Current data pipeline solutions show no sign of slowing in their march toward increasing complexity. Airflow is already “old news,” and teams are investigating tools like Flight and Mage. Demands upon the teams assigned to manage data and data pipelines won’t lessen. Without taking steps to get above water, SLA compliance will remain a formidable task.

Broadcom offers a comprehensive suite of solutions designed to reduce the risk of SLA breaches and elevate teams to a position of power. At last, data orchestration and automation tools can serve their intended purpose: streamlining workflows and wrestling every possible insight from the available data.

To discover how you can adopt this holistic perspective, we invite you to explore the resources at Broadcom Software Academy.

Sources

CIO.com. What is an SLA? Best practices for service-level agreements
https://www.cio.com/article/274740/outsourcing-sla-definitions-and-solutions.html

Dimensional Research. How Too Many Tools Obscure Automation Issues. December 2023. https://academy.broadcom.com/hubfs/ESD/ESD_Academy/ESD_FY24_Academy/ESD_FY24_Academy_Files/ESD_FY24_Academy_Files_Automation/How-Too-Many-Tools-Obscure-Automation-Issues.pdf

Broadcom. Reduce Risk with Unified Automation Observability. https://academy.broadcom.com/automation/value-drivers/reduce-risk-with-unified-automation-observability

Analyst Prep. Liquidity Risk Reporting and Stress Testing.
https://analystprep.com/study-notes/frm/liquidity-risk-reporting-and-stress-testing/

Forbes. 12 Actions to Shift From A Reactive to A Proactive Business Strategy.
https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2020/11/30/12-actions-to-shift-from-a-reactive-to-a-proactive-business-strategy/

Forbes. Why High-Quality And Relevant Data Is Essential In Today's Business Landscape.
https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2023/04/17/why-high-quality-and-relevant-data-is-essential-in-todays-business-landscape/

Investopedia. What is Critical Path Analysis? https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/critical-path-analysis.asp 

Axelos. ITIL 4 Practitioner: Service Level Management Practice. https://www.axelos.com/resource-hub/blog/itil_4_practitioner_service_level_management_practice 

Simplilearn. What is a Service Level Agreement and the Types of SLA. https://www.simplilearn.com/designing-sla-structures-sla-content-article