IT support levels for different processes and business applications depend on many factors. So how are analytics projects generally supported?

It's common for IT to view the implementation of advanced analytics as part of a production job or process, especially when analytic models are deployed into different operational systems that are viewed as production level systems.  However, it is common for IT to view the analytic discovery and model building process as a non-production or a development process.

Since the importance of using advanced analytics for strategic business purposes continues to be embraced by all types of industries, treating the analytic development process and related jobs as non-production is a mistake.

It might make sense to treat operational reports as development projects, because these generally deliver information about what has happened in the past.   Analytics, on the other hand, provides insight into what will happen and even when it will most likely occur.  As a result, interactive analytic discovery and model building should not be treated as a development process in the historical way IT views development activities.

Analytical models degrade over time and must be monitored and updated in order for them to remain effective and deliver meaningful business value.  As a result, the analytic discovery and model building process should be viewed as part of the production processes. Consider a model that predicts when a multi-million dollar piece of equipment, like an electrical submersible pump, will stop working. Or what about a model that helps detect electrical theft or predict credit card fraud. The longer it takes you to update or replace this type of model with an updated (better) version, the more money, time and resources you lose.

Your interactive analytic discovery and model building environment is just as valuable, if not more valuable, than the implementation of the models that run in other production level systems.   This means IT should provide the same high-available, disaster recovery processes for analytic development areas instead of viewing and treating them with the support levels associated with development environments.

What might this switch entail? It will probably mean a higher, short-term cost associated with setting up your analytic IT environment. However, the long-term benefits of having a system that is continuously updating models in production will more than make up for any short-term investment costs.