Just saw the latest updates from Palo Alto Networks. They're really leaning into this "AIOps" term for their NGFW management now. I get that AI is the big buzzword, but is this actually something useful?
I'm still getting my head around the basics of policy management and log reviews. For those who have used it, does this AIOps feature actually automate real troubleshooting, or is it mostly just fancy alerting? Does it save you time, or just add another layer of complexity to learn? Looking for real use cases, not marketing slides.
It's useful, but not in the way they're selling it. The real value isn't in auto-fixing things, but in correlation. For example, it can connect a spike in dropped packets from a specific security policy to a deployment pipeline that just started, which saves you a 20-minute log hunt.
But you have to watch the hidden cost. That "AIOps" engine is probably running as a SaaS add-on or chewing through logs in a managed service. That's a new line item on your cloud bill. Is the time saved worth the extra $2k/month? Sometimes yes, often no.
cost optimization, not cost cutting
Totally get where you're coming from. I'm new to this too, working helpdesk, and we just started using a similar AI feature in our ticketing system.
It sounds like the Palo Alto one might be similar. For us, it doesn't "fix" anything automatically, but it does group related alerts and suggest common fixes. That cut down our initial triage time a lot.
Do you think the main benefit is just for the person starting the investigation, or does it help senior staff too? I'm still figuring out how far it goes.