Introduction

QKS Group defines Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) as a platform that leverages big data, machine learning, advanced analytics, and AI to deliver actionable insights, enabling organizations to monitor, automate, and enhance IT operations for optimized service availability, uptime, and performance. The platform analyzes MELT (Metrics, Events, Logs, and Traces) and performance data from diverse systems, applications, and tools to provide holistic visibility into IT interdependencies.

Today's fast-paced digital landscape has witnessed AIOps transform from an exclusive innovation to an integrating factor for big entities with cloud-native, hybrid, and distributed environments. As the attention of the market has already been drawn to it, there is a rapid and widespread adoption of AIOps by organizations that aim to be predictive, not reactive, in problem resolution. With the increase in the level of infrastructure complexity, CIOs as well as IT heads are turning more and more to AIOps for business continuity, downtime minimization, and achieving operational intelligence at scale.

Vendors such as Splunk (Cisco), Dynatrace, ServiceNow, Datadog, and IBM are at the forefront of redefining this transformation. Each vendor is one of a kind as they blend observability, AI automation, and scalability to the enterprise. From Splunk’s deep observability integrations and IBM’s cognitive intelligence to Dynatrace’s Grail data lakehouse and ServiceNow’s predictive ITSM workflows, the AIOps landscape continues to expand, bridging performance analytics with business outcomes.

Problem Statement

Choosing the right AIOps platform has never been more difficult than it is today. With so many players in the space advertising "AI-powered operations" and "self-healing automation," decision-makers must take on the hard job of separating marketing hype from real value.

Analyst evaluations present structured ways to think through market position, but organizations frequently want to explore what spoke to top thinkers and users, end-users what was actually experienced in deployment, and then those practices lead back to measurable ROI. This creates what we call the trust and evaluation gap, though more importantly, where market intelligence structured analysis seems to fall short in competing against a real, lived experience.

For example, a vendor may excel in technology innovation, but it has not been tested in an enterprise environment or one that scales well. Or, users boast about a system's usability, but the system is not yet as analytically robust. Traditions analyst reports do not come close to conveying this level of nuance.

As IT decision-makers trend toward evidence-based purchasing and require a medium to cross-reference analyst insights with actual user feedback, SPARK Plus™ provides a way to connect structured analysis with validation from users to create a 360° view of AIOps solutions.

Introducing SPARK Plus™

SPARK Plus™, developed by QKS Group, is the world’s first Analyst + User Review Platform, designed to integrate expert research alongside verified customer feedback within a single, transparent decision-support framework. It helps enterprises move beyond static vendor comparisons and toward insight-driven validation backed by both data and lived experience.

Each SPARK Plus™ report builds on the foundation of the SPARK Matrix™, also developed by the QKS Group, a globally recognized vendor benchmarking framework. As the SPARK Matrix™ evaluates vendors based on Technology Excellence and Customer Impact, SPARK Plus™ applies a vital new dimension, the voice of the customer.

This combination enables enterprises to see both sides of the equation: analyst-backed evaluations of product strategy, vision, and innovation, alongside real-world feedback on usability, scalability, deployment, and support.

In our AIOps SPARK Plus™ study, we profiled leading vendors, including Splunk (Cisco), Dynatrace, ServiceNow, Datadog, and IBM, leveraging insights from verified enterprise users across industries and geographies.

Here are the findings:

·       Splunk (Cisco) retains a leading position in unified observability and AI-driven event correlation. Users commend its strong analytic functionality and level of integrations, but caution about cost complexity at scale.

·       Dynatrace is viewed positively for its autonomous operations, Davis AI engine, and Grail data model that unifies MELT data for contextual analysis. Enterprises note fast time-to-value and intuitive visualization as key differentiators.

·       ServiceNow leads in IT workflow automation and AIOps - ITSM convergence. Customers value the predictive intelligence and ease of integration with existing IT service environments.

·       Datadog has very strong user sentiment for its ease of deployment, cloud-native scalability, and rich visualization. Its seamless cross-domain observability earns high marks for DevOps alignment.

·       IBM’s Cloud Pak for AIOps, Instana Observability, and IBM Concert provide cognitive automation and deep ML capabilities, specifically for large, hybrid enterprises seeking explainable AI and data governance.

Overall, these insights demonstrate the importance of combining analyst rigor with user authenticity. SPARK Plus™ takes vendor assessments from a theoretical basis to a more balanced, evidence-driven perspective that reflects true enterprise experience.

SPARK Matrix™ Coverage within SPARK Plus™

The SPARK Matrix™ remains the analytical core of QKS Group’s market evaluation framework, benchmarking vendors along two dimensions: Technology Excellence and Customer Impact. The SPARK Plus™ expansion integrates verified user sentiment data into this matrix, enhancing both the credibility and contextual relevance of vendor positioning.

For the AIOps market, SPARK Plus™ offers in-depth coverage across major industries and regions, reflecting the diverse operational needs and deployment contexts of global enterprises:

Industries covered:

·       Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI): Emphasis on predictive incident prevention and regulatory compliance.

·       Retail & eCommerce: Focus on performance visibility and digital experience monitoring.

·       Healthcare: Demand for secure, compliant automation and proactive issue resolution.

·       Manufacturing: Need for operational continuity and OT/IT integration.

·       IT & Telecom: Drive toward scalable, self-healing infrastructures for mission-critical uptime.

Regions covered:

·       North America (U.S., Canada): Leading adoption in large enterprises and hybrid IT environments.

·       Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Nordics): Growing focus on data compliance and AI transparency.

·       Asia-Pacific (APAC): Rapid adoption driven by digital transformation and cloud acceleration.

·       Middle East & Africa (MEA): Increasing demand for service automation in emerging digital economies.

·       Latin America: Early-stage adoption with strong interest in cost-efficient AIOps models.

This global and cross-industry coverage ensures that SPARK Plus™ delivers insights not only for global CIOs but also for regional IT leaders seeking localized intelligence. Whether it’s a global enterprise standardizing AIOps deployments or a regional operator optimizing observability, SPARK Plus™ brings actionable clarity to every decision.

Conclusion

As the AIOps market matures, the need for transparent, validated insights increases. Organizations no longer wish to depend fully on analyst frameworks and vendor claims, but rather interests balanced intelligence that reflects both analyst expertise and user experience.

With SPARK Plus™, QKS Group undoes this credibility gap. By combining structured research with verified user reviews, SPARK Plus™ enables organizations to make smarter, faster, and more confident technology decisions.

In an era defined by operational complexity, overflow of data, and AI-led decision-making, SPARK Plus™ is not simply a research product but a conduit between insight and reality, allowing enterprises to move from information to conviction and evaluation to execution.