Useful dashboards can elevate data analysis tasks, and bridge the gap between data and action. Viewers should be able to look at a dashboard and go, “I understand what’s going on and exactly what I need to do now.”
Published Date: November 30, 2022
IT automation is the process of using repeatable computing processes to replace the intervention of human technicians. The ultimate goal of IT automation is to free IT operations professionals from time-consuming and repetitive tasks and allow them to concentrate on more important activities that require a higher level of thought, creativity and interaction. IT automation is an essential part of IT operations, security, cloud orchestration and other fundamental elements of modern IT procedures.
IT systems in modern organizations are composed of thousands of hardware and software components, located on premises, in the cloud and in hybrid environments, which have become increasingly more complicated in their structure. Thus, these systems have grown beyond the capabilities of human operators to manage, as manual processes are cumbersome and impossible to scale.
IT automation uses automated scripts to perform specific IT tasks when triggered by an external signal, replacing the need for an IT administrator to perform the same task, with multiple scripts combined to streamline more complex tasks. IT automation systems can be used to trigger operations based on a variety of factors in the IT infrastructure, including threshold issues, when a server reaches capacity and the process needs to be taken over by another machine.
IT automation and IT orchestration are related and complementary, but are not the same thing. Automation in the context of IT generally refers to automating a single task. Orchestration looks at how to automate a process, or help with workflow automation.
In this article we’ll discuss how IT automation is used, the benefits it provides to digital transformation efforts, look at some use cases and also talk about best practices and how to get started.
What is an example of IT automation?
Automated incident response is a perfect example of IT automation. Before automation, IT teams were completely reactive, waiting to hear about a fault or issue (often by telephone). With IT automation, many IT incidents can be automatically alerted and routed to the right team, or even handled completely without the need for an IT staff technician.
Automation can be used to gather real-time contextual information needed to troubleshoot an incident, such as details of the incident and history of previous incidents. Automation can also perform actions when triggered by certain events, such as routing traffic spikes to a new server when the current server reaches capacity, or closing ports or blocking IPs when malicious activity is detected.
What is the difference between orchestration and automation?
IT automation is the process of performing various functions automatically while orchestration refers to numerous complex processes working together for a common goal.
IT automation is the process of performing individual tasks automatically. IT orchestration refers to bringing together individual automation processes into a coordinated workflow to accomplish a larger goal.
While the two terms are often used interchangeably, and closely related, they are not the same. IT automation can be described as performing “if this, then that” functions. Orchestration generally refers to more complex, larger processes that build on individual, automated tasks and accomplish more than one action.
Why is IT automation a growing trend?
The growth of technology is a constant in organizations of every size. Even small companies in traditionally low-tech industries use vastly more technology today as part of their day-to-day operations than a few years ago. From smartphones to video conferencing, the amount of technology that IT departments need to manage has grown significantly faster than their budgets or staffing levels.
These factors have significantly increased the workload of already stretched IT organizations and data centers, who are suffering from elevated levels of burnout following the COVID-19 pandemic and often operating at reduced staffing levels in light of workforce attrition trends. Even if IT leaders have the budget to hire new staff, they’re having trouble finding them. The logical answer is to automate IT functions that can be done without human intervention, optimizing resources across the board.
How does IT automation help you manage your IT operations?
IT automation can be used to perform a wide variety of tasks — even routine tasks — in an enterprise IT infrastructure. There are several different types of automation, including:
Incident management: When an IT incident occurs, IT automation solutions can respond, either addressing the issue automatically if possible, or alerting the right team if it requires a multi-faceted resolution. Automated incident management reduces the mean time to resolution/repair (MTTR) of an issue because it doesn’t necessitate manual intervention, ultimately leading to improved customer satisfaction and cost savings.
Application deployment: IT automation frameworks can be used to automatically deploy applications, moving them from testing to production IT environments, which is an essential component of a DevOps environment. Automatically deploying applications removes the potential for human error and leads to repeatable deployments across the delivery cycle.
Digital infrastructure automation: Digital infrastructure includes elements like operating systems, network elements, servers and storage. Digital infrastructure automation can be used to control their functions automatically, providing the same benefits in speed, efficiency and error reduction as it does in other areas of IT automation. When it comes to cloud and multicloud services, cloud automation tools can be used to manage workload deployments and get maximum efficiency from virtual machines and storage.
How does IT automation help with your cybersecurity posture?
The number of cybersecurity threats — from denial of service (DoS) attacks to phishing attempts to ransomware — faced by modern organizations has increased significantly, making it impossible for human teams to handle on their own. By automating security policies and making them part of the automated environment, security operations teams can ensure that incidents are identified, alerted and resolved as quickly as possible.
As an example, say an organization’s internal email list has been made public without authorization and they’re receiving a large number of phishing emails. Manually addressing the issue would require security personnel to review and remove each email. With automation, the malicious emails trigger a set of pre-defined criteria (a “playbook”) and are routed into a separate container, which is isolated from the organization’s email system. Automation performs the task of identifying the threat, alerting the IT/security team, isolating the emails and allowing the team to deal with them all in one place.
As with other aspects of IT automation, cybersecurity automation not only performs actions faster and more efficiently than human operators would be able to, but also frees up analysts time to address more critical security challenges and create new automated playbooks.
What are some other use cases of IT automation?
There are thousands of potential use cases for IT automation, from provisioning new employee software to automating simple help desk activities to routine IT operations and cybersecurity functions. Here are a few other key categories.
Compliance: For IT operations teams operating in regulated environments, automating certain operations can help meet compliance and auditing requirements by standardizing the process. This can also help to provide an audit trail when necessary to prove compliance to specific regulations.
Business process automation: Business process automation can be used for a wide variety of purposes, including:
- IT support tickets
- Internal and external customer support
- Onboarding new hires
- User provisioning
- Automated file transfers
- Automated email
- Employee vacation requests
- Expense reporting and approval
- Accounting process automation
Robotic process automation: Robotic process automation (RPA) is a type of IT automation that uses software bots to perform automated functions, rather than using application programming interfaces (API). RPA can be used to perform many of the same tasks as IT automation but usually at the user-interface level.
What are the benefits of IT automation?
When considering the benefits in the broadest terms, IT automation allows the IT organization to provide essential functions faster, more effectively and with reduced possibility of error. Key benefits include:
Speed: IT service automation, like automation of nearly every type, allows basic IT operations to be accomplished faster, eliminating wait times for manual tasks, processes and activities that would otherwise require human intervention.
Eliminating human error: When properly provisioned, IT automation removes the necessity of human intervention in simple, repetitive tasks, eliminating the possibility of human error and freeing IT team members for more important activities.
Cost savings: With the demands on the IT team generally growing faster than the department’s budget, IT automation can play an important role in helping to reduce costs while still achieving a high standard of service. The more tasks that can be automated, the fewer new staff members will need to be hired and trained.
Improved incident management: Seconds count when it comes to IT issues, and an automation platform is the IT department’s best tool when it comes to responding to and resolving issues as quickly as possible. End-to-end visibility and automated incident response can reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) from hours and minutes to seconds.
Increased cybersecurity: While cyber attacks are becoming more and more insidious and sophisticated, the necessity of guarding against simple threats still remains. IT automation can identify threatening anomalous behavior as soon as it occurs and take the appropriate actions to stop the threat without waiting for human operators.
What are the drawbacks of IT automation?
Overall, IT automation provides significant potential benefits for most organizations. There are some areas that should be considered to prevent potential problems.
Additional or unexpected costs: IT automation tools, depending on the process they are automating, can potentially be more expensive than the cost of performing occasional functions manually, although IT automation generally has a positive return on investment.
Complexity: Organizations with a large installed base of legacy systems face difficulties incorporating new processes and systems.
Provisioning: IT automation is only as good as the policies on which it is built. An automated process that is incorrectly configured will not perform its desired function and can have a negative effect on other downstream processes.
Development time and testing: IT automation is generally not a plug-and-play activity, and while automating simple functions is generally a straightforward operation, it does require time to create and test.
Employee perception: While IT automation is generally used to perform repetitive tasks that humans find mundane, it can also be seen as replacing the need for human employees.
IT automation allows IT teams to provide essential functions faster, more effectively and with reduced possibility of error. It can also be more costly and complex to manage.
What are some best practices in IT automation?
IT automation is a big topic and there are as many best practices as there are use cases. For the scope of this article, we’ll take a look at some higher-level suggestions that will help you add value to your automation efforts.
Consider the ROI: Automation should not become an end in itself. When considering which processes to automate, look for the simplest, most repetitive tasks that take up the most time. Automating a process that only needs to be done for a few minutes every month, for instance, may not be worth the effort.
Use automation to fill a business need: Your automation efforts will be more successful and better received if they align closely with your organization’s business goals. Make sure you can explain to leadership why you’ve chosen to automate particular tasks, which in turn will help you share your success, and get support and approval for future automation efforts.
Keep speed in mind: Automating boring tasks not only makes it possible for your IT team to focus on better ways to use their time, it also speeds up most IT processes. If you want to make sure your automation efforts are perceived to be successful, focus on the ways they can help to perform necessary tasks faster and more efficiently.
Under promise and over deliver: You may have a longer than anticipated ramp-up period before your automation efforts begin to bear fruit so be mindful when estimating how long it will take to provide value and allow yourself enough time to get your automation efforts dialed in.
How do you get started automating your IT infrastructure?
The path to automation is similar to that of any significant IT initiative in that it requires you to consider the challenges you hope to solve, get the right people involved and make the right choices when it comes to technology.
- Make sure when choosing what processes to automate that you are solving important issues that everyone in the organization agrees need solving, which will also help you earn buy-in and support.
- If you are choosing automation tools or automation software, be sure they work with your existing technology stack and are scalable with the needs of your organization.
- Make a list of important stakeholders and get them on board from the beginning. Get their input to make sure that you are addressing the needs and requirements of everyone in the organization, as much as possible.
- Keep in mind any industry-specific issues, for instance, regulatory requirements or the need to provide an audit trail.
- Consider working with an external consultant or vendor to help you choose a solution that will meet your needs now and in the future and work with your existing tools and processes.
What is the future of IT automation?
The demand for qualified IT professionals already outpaces the supply. Thus, with the increased use of technology, growing cybersecurity threats and predominance of e-commerce, automation rapidly becomes the solution to a growing list of problems.
IT automation is widespread and generally accepted as a best practice within the IT community. The future of IT automation is built on the integration of AI into IT automation to make the processes not only more responsive but more proactive. This is also known as intelligent automation. Thus, Artificial Intelligence for IT Operations (AIOps) — the practice of using analytics and machine learning to automate IT operations — is both an automation trend and part of the future of IT automation. As more and more processes are designed to learn as they operate, AI will be integral in helping to perform specific tasks and accomplish defined goals without the need for human interaction.
The bottom line for IT automation is fairly clear cut; IT automation is an essential element in enabling organizations to take advantage of new technologies and vital to future growth. The workload of IT departments worldwide is not likely to diminish — in fact, just the opposite. Demand will grow, and the supply of people needed to fulfill those demands will not be able to keep up. IT automation and its related disciplines are the only way for organizations to continue to grow and prosper. As AI becomes increasingly integrated into IT automation, its capabilities will grow as well, giving it even more power to accelerate speed and efficiency of IT operations, protect networks and remove the potential for human error while also empowering IT team members to do their best and most rewarding work.
