The term event correlation can be confusing given the fact that it is frequently tuned to fit the marketing needs of a given product. It is used in conjunction with terms like alarm suppression, fault resolution, and root cause analysis, which are closely related but somewhat different in meaning. Event correlation is the process of correlating alarms to isolate the point of failure. When it's thorough, event correlation may yield root cause analysis - which provides the single identifiable cause of a problem. Mere alarm suppression provides, by comparison, only a partial answer to the problem - reducing the number of alarms generated by a failure so the person trying to fix the problem isn't overrun by alarms that are of less consequence.
Automation is increasingly important as correlation products embrace more devices.
A few are moving towards the application space. Clearly this is a good thing. Automated problem resolution across networks, systems and applications is no longer just a nice idea, it is the logical next step. Given the pressures to diagnose problems quickly, event correlation makes obvious sense. Dealing with hundreds of flashing red lights by uttering a few Hail Mary's and launching point solutions was never a very comforting process, especially in large, complex environments.