An IT operations analyst plays a vital role in customer support services and the company’s development orientation. The great responsibility makes those who do this job enjoy a reasonably high salary and receive good benefits.
Yet, you must determine the required education, skills, and work experience before pursuing this attractive job. If you need help understanding these people’s primary duties, immediately refer to the instructions in the article.
Job Description
With an IT operations analyst, what do companies ask for? What will you have to do as an operations analyst? Here are the answers to all your questions.
Duties and Responsibilities
IT operations analysts will run the system and provide timely repairs. They will be the ones who run tests to identify defects, thereby replacing hardware or software to eliminate errors.
Their ultimate goal is for the system to function correctly and prevent any problems that may occur shortly. An IT operations analyst is responsible for detecting and correcting errors. They need to complete the following tasks.
- Product strategic planning: IT operations analysts provide hardware and software development plans for various departments. These contributions will help develop the required infrastructure environment.
- Research and project planning: An IT operations analyst may also participate in corporate projects as a research fellow. They will make some recommendations to enhance the company’s IT infrastructure.
- Provide IT services: It provides technical support to monitor the system’s security and report to management promptly. They support office IT staff to ensure the integrity of IT systems.
- Resource management: They prepare cost estimates for the infrastructure. It helps management with budgeting, support deployment, and infrastructure maintenance.
Where Do IT Operations Analysts Work?
An IT operations analyst is an indispensable position for any large company. Large-scale companies have a complex information technology system that professionals can only operate.
Therefore, IT operations analysts often work in companies with large IT systems. They will also work with supervisors to decide on software and hardware that will benefit the company.
Education Requirements
Information technology operations analysis is quite a fascinating job. Yet, recruiters for this position also have strict requirements for candidates.
If you want to develop your career as a professional IT operations analyst, improve your skills and experience with the following criteria:
Education & Training
An applicant for an IT operations analyst position must have a minimum of a bachelor’s degree. A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or other related fields can help candidates pass the screening. However, for a competitive edge, a Master’s degree is always recommended.
Work Experience
Employers need candidates with experience working in IT operations analysis. Yet, depending on the company’s operational goals, work experience requirements will vary.
Yet, most applicants for this job will require experience working with statistics, data modeling, and database design development.
Candidates will be good candidates if they have experience in critical incident management and implementing process improvements in NOC.
Certifications
Some pretty valuable certificates in the field of information technology activity analysis can be mentioned:
- Six Sigma Green Belt issued by IASSC
- Project Management Professional (PMP).
- Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP).
- Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
- Certified Information Security Manager (CISM).
Essential Skills
Hard Skills
- SQL.
- Data analysis
- Math skills.
- Computer skills to use various programs.
- Ability to handle large amounts of data.
- Use the Microsoft Office software suite.
Soft Skills
- Project management.
- Teamwork and cooperation skills.
- Problem-solving skills.
- Critical thinking.
Essential Tools
In addition to using professional and soft skills, IT operations analysts must also be proficient in supporting tools. Here are some valuable tools familiar.
Elastic
It is a full-text analysis tool. It supports search, logging, IT system analysis, and software. Elastic helps professionals perform analytics on the visualization platform with other tools from the same publisher. It is an integrated solution that saves time and effort in running tests.
Splunk
Splunk is software that works with a web-style interface. It’s pretty simple and effective. It does more than search and index data in real time. Splunk also supports extensive data analysis by generating charts, reports, and alerts.
Splunk is also particularly effective for analyzing machine state in real-time, even when the machine generates data continuously.
This helpful tool will collect data and give accurate results quickly.
Evolven
Evolven is a new solution for information technology system monitoring. It monitors every change in the information system, giving the earliest warnings. Sometimes, it can also be available as a crash prevention tool.
Using this tool, the company will have a more stable IT environment. Issues related to operating costs or environmental incidents will be available most thoroughly.
Sumo Logic
Sumo Logic is a tool to support data analysis and management on the cloud system. IT system operators will use this tool to get real-time system insights.
Micro Focus Operations Bridge Analytics
Micro-focus operations bridge analytics will help IT system operators comprehensively manage the system.
This tool works well on more than 110 cloud domains and many 3rd party management tools. It is a top-notch tool for anyone who works with IT systems.
New Relic
IT operations analysts often use this tool to monitor cloud systems. It supports aggregating and giving timely warnings.
This tool also helps draw charts and reports to use the system more efficiently.
Moonsoft
Moogsoft is a valuable tool for event management. Thanks to its AI features, it can warn in various situations, even supporting alarm-to-fault conversion.
Another advantage of this tool is that it can intelligently handle multiple alerts related to a single incident source.
Palantir Foundry
Palantir Foundry remains a virtual tool trusted by IT operations analysts. It is the integration of many different data management tools.
Its most outstanding feature is that it helps to remove the barrier between data management and data analysis. However, due to the complex components, this software requires users to have profound technical ability and expertise.
Job Outlook
Along with the explosion of information technology, related professions, including IT operations analysis, had outstanding growth. Positions for this occupation increased by more than 75.85% in a year.
Up to now, IT operations analysis has been a familiar profession. Yet, it still retains an appeal that transcends many traditional disciplines. It is expected that by 2029, the US will have 35,080 job vacancies for this profession.
Pursuing a job as an IT operations analyst, you also have the opportunity to try different positions. For example, if you are oriented to work in the digital field, you may also be interested in machine learning and artificial intelligence positions in large corporations.
You can also focus solely on improving customer experience by doing market research and producing relevant problem-solving reports.
An IT operations analyst has vast job opportunities. And you can easily find a position that suits your development orientation.
Salary
According to BLS, an IT operations analyst in the United States receives an average of $67,187 annually. This salary is about $32.30/hour, $5,598/month, much higher than the average salary today.
The highest salary that an IT operations analyst has recorded to date is $116,500/year. The lowest salary an inexperienced analyst earns is $45,000/year. You can earn $60,000/year by improving your qualifications and skills and gaining work experience.
Advantages and Disadvantages
IT operations analysts are in the top 25% of highest-paying occupations. Yet, when pursuing this job, you will face quite a few challenges. Here are my summaries regarding its pros and cons.
- High salary.
- Various job positions
- There are many specializations to choose from.
- Suitable for those who are results-oriented.
- Working hours are long and can be over 40 hours/per week.
- Need to learn and update new knowledge constantly
FAQs
I received many inquiries to advise an IT operations analyst. Here are the most frequently asked questions. If you have the same questions, refer to my answers.
Is being an IT analyst an excellent job?
Like all jobs related to information technology, an IT analyst is a job with pretty good job prospects. Individuals with exceptional experience and skills will receive pretty high salaries. Job positions for this job are also quite diverse as most companies have now turned to information technology systems to optimize processes and ensure growth.
Is operations analyst a hard job?
Being an operations analyst is a complicated job. In addition to technical skills, analysts need to know many fields. In particular, they will often face complex problems and bear heavy responsibilities for the system’s regular operation.
What are IT operation functions?
The jobs that IT operations need to handle are running tests, detecting problems, and coordinating services to determine the cause and quickly develop a prevention plan.
How do I become a better operations analyst?
To become an Operations Analyst, you must have a bachelor’s degree in a related field. Yet, to improve your skills, you should earn a master’s degree and many vital certifications in the field of information technology.
You also need to gain experience while constantly training and exploiting support tools.
What is the IT operations process?
Information technology management will include hardware and software management. It will have services for which the IT department is responsible.
IS Operations Analyst the same as a data analyst?
These two jobs still have differences, and people doing operations analysis will use data in real-time. Meanwhile, data analysts can use previously collected data to make forecasts and develop directions.
Are IT analysts programmers?
Programming analysts can act like computer programmers. Yet, programmers are simply responsible for writing and designing programs. On the other hand, programmers have the responsibility of systems analysts.
IT analysts will create and develop software, write programs, and ensure the system works efficiently and without problems.
How do you become an IT analyst?
To become an IT analyst, you need a degree, certification, and work experience in computer science and information technology. Typically, employers will require candidates to have at least a bachelor’s degree in the above fields.
Plus, having a higher degree and working experience in the field will also make you more successful as you advance your career toward becoming an IT analyst.
What is the role of IT operations?
IT operations will help organizations manage software and hardware. People working in this position also provide some support to other departments.
For example, IT operations from some large companies need to work in network administration and device management.
What is another name for an operations analyst?
Some other recommendations for Operations Analyst jobs are operations specialist, systems analyst, and data analyst. Depending on the company’s industry, the operations analyst may be referred to by other names such as Supply Chain Analyst, Business Analyst, and Financial Analyst.
Career Advice
You cannot deny the importance of an IT operations analyst in a company. Those who do this job are responsible for maintaining operations from the IT system and developing new projects.
If you are interested in the above jobs, you will need to prepare professional knowledge and soft skills fully.
And a degree is the first requirement to operate in management and ensure the performance of information technology systems.
Some companies will also require applicants to have work experience. Hence, start working as a fundamental analyst as soon as possible.
Finally, remember to keep up to date with the latest in your analytical and statistical skills and improve your ability to work with data.
Hopefully, the above sharing gives you the most comprehensive view of this potential and challenging career.
I wish you the best career direction and success with your choice.
Thanks for reading!