Guest Editorial: Special section on Networks, Systems, and Services Operations and Management Through Intelligence

Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can harness the immense amount of operational data from clouds to services, to social and communication networks. In the era of data science and connected devices of all varieties, Intelligence have found ways to improve operations and management of next generation networks, systems, and services. Further research is therefore needed to understand and improve the potential and suitability of ML/AI in the context of network, system, and service operations and management. This will provide deeper understanding and better decision making based on largely collected and available operational and management data. It will also present opportunities for improving ML/AI algorithms on aspects such as reliability, dependability, and scalability, as well as demonstrate the benefits of these methods in control and management systems. Moreover, there is an opportunity to define novel platforms that can harness the vast operational data and advance ML/AI algorithms to drive management decisions in open and highly programmable networks, clouds, and data centers.