How to Elevate IT Operations: Proven Methods, Skills, and Monitoring Practices

Operations work can be divided into hardware, desktop, system, database, and application operations, ranging from personal computers to billions of high‑end computing devices such as mainframes.

Depending on the scale of a company's IT system, operations teams range from a single person to several hundred, working around the clock to keep systems running.

A common saying goes, “exhausted like a dog, waking earlier than chickens and sleeping later than pigs.” I summarize operations in two statements: technology is merely a tool, business is the core.

The quality of operations is judged by the value and impact it brings to the company and its business, and by making operations more agile and better understanding user needs.

All these activities revolve around varying business requirements at different stages, aiming to deliver true operational value to the enterprise.

1. Operations Methods

Technical Level: As information technology evolves and business expands, system architectures become increasingly complex and tightly coupled, demanding higher competence from operations staff who must become experts in the systems they support.

Operations personnel must quickly shift mindset and adopt proactive practices to handle complex, changing IT issues and ensure system stability.

They should think from the customer's perspective to solve problems.

Using integrated operations platforms enables business‑level changes and upgrades without the business noticing.

Documentation Level: A robust system or project requires extensive documentation.

During system construction, create requirement, design, and implementation documents, then generate issue‑summary and updated implementation documents.

After completion, produce operation manuals and maintenance guides based on system capabilities and user groups.

Ensure documentation accompanies business hand‑over; otherwise post‑deployment issues will overwhelm operations staff.

Classify and store documents (configuration, implementation, design, specifications, project management, etc.) with copies for both the operations department and the archives.

Operations staff must possess strong writing and organization skills, follow existing documents strictly, communicate promptly when issues arise, and update documents accordingly.

Establish a knowledge base to record problems, solutions, thought processes, and especially post‑incident summaries.

Process Level:

Establish clear operations processes; staff must follow predefined rules.

Define responsibility for incidents through the process; business and operations focus differ, as do responsibilities.

Adopt ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) standards to provide objective, rigorous, and measurable service‑management practices.

2. Operations Personnel Skills

As the saying goes, “the craftsman must first sharpen his tools.” Modern enterprises emphasize user‑centric service driven by professional technology, making solid technical competence essential.

Key skills for operations staff include:

Deep understanding of the systems they own, participation in design, implementation, and maintenance, and a solid foundation of design or troubleshooting experience.

Soft skills such as communication, collaborative mindset, and documentation ability.

Familiarity with mainstream technologies (cloud computing, edge computing, big data, AIOps, artificial intelligence, deep learning, etc.) and the ability to stay current.

Active involvement in online or offline technical discussions to learn emerging IT trends and consider how to apply them to create business value and improve operational efficiency.

3. Operations Monitoring

The purpose of monitoring is to prevent problems before they occur. Through monitoring, operations staff can promptly understand the state of the enterprise network.

When security risks arise, alerts or other notifications allow staff time to address issues, preventing impact on business systems. Modern monitoring tools can automatically remediate simple faults, but higher‑level automation still requires deep scripting and system knowledge.

4. Operations Backup

Backup is a safeguard; it is rarely needed, but when it is, it is critical. Proper backup can revive a failing system, while poor backup can lead to irreversible loss. Companies entrust valuable assets to operations, so staff must be responsible for data and assets. Choose backup software that fits business needs and define strategies that differ by data type.

5. Summary

Operations is meticulous work that tolerates no sloppiness. Personnel must be innovative, passionate, and responsible; even without deep technical expertise or lightning speed, a strong sense of responsibility ensures success.