IT Automation vs. Orchestration: What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter?

As modern IT systems grow more elaborate — encompassing hardware and software across hybrid environments — the prospect of managing these systems often grows beyond the capacity an IT team can handle. Automation and orchestration are two terms used interchangeably in enterprise IT, but they serve two distinct functions.

Automation and orchestration are two terms used interchangeably in enterprise IT but serve two distinct functions.

• Automation handles independent, siloed and small operations, replacing the human effort with technology.
• Orchestration handles process workflows automatically end-to-end.

This distinction is essential as it serves as a key criterion for resource allocation, process management, design and strategy. It is dependent on the complexity of a process and the value achieved by replacing manual labor with automation, whether at a task level or across the workflow end-to-end. 

Let’s discuss this comparison in detail.

Defining automation and orchestration

For the most part, the difference between IT orchestration and automation is in the way they are applied. One way to consider the two is: automation refers to a task, whereas orchestration refers to a workflow or process.

They’re not the same, but they’re certainly complementary.

What is automation?

Automation refers to the process of using technology to perform tasks that otherwise require human intervention. This is typically achieved by executing predefined rules, scripts and control actions. Generally, the tasks chosen for automation share several common characteristics — they are deterministic, repetitive, and have a well-defined scope. By relying on technology to handle these operations, organizations can achieve outcomes that are efficient, consistent, and predictable.

It is important to note that automation usually focuses on individual task operations. As a result, it does not inherently manage dependencies or limitations between separate tasks. The logic that powers automation is often embedded in static scripts, which follow a fixed set of instructions without the need for decision-making outside their predefined parameters. Typically, only a limited understanding of the local context is required.

For example, automation might be set to trigger a control action — such as alerting an IT manager or logging out all active users — when a specific metric exceeds a designated threshold for a certain period. In this way, simple automation scripts can serve as foundational elements that are later integrated into broader operational workflows, which are managed through orchestration.

(Automation can also play a key role in security.)

What is orchestration?

Orchestration builds upon automation by focusing on the coordination and management of complex systems and processes within an IT environment. Rather than handling tasks in isolation, orchestration involves the automated execution of multiple tasks across diverse hardware systems, platforms, software applications, middleware, and network endpoints — often spanning data centers and cloud computing environments.

Automation of individual tasks forms the building blocks of orchestration. These automated tasks are organized into well-defined workflows, so that entire processes can be managed automatically from end to end. At this level, orchestration applies IT policies globally, while individual automations carry out actions based on these overarching policies and the specific local context. This approach results in a network of systems and processes that communicate and depend on one another, enabling seamless, end-to-end automation.

A key requirement for successful orchestration is maintaining visibility across the entire workflow. The primary objective is to ensure that process execution remains reliable and efficient.

To facilitate orchestration, organizations often use workflow engines such as Kubernetes (K8s), which are designed to manage containerized applications. These tools abstract and oversee the complex workflows that dictate how multiple containers operate together across clusters of machines in cloud environments. Specifically, orchestration tools ensure that:

• Containers start in the correct order.
• Communication between containers remains secure.
• Metrics are continuously monitored for system health.
• Failures are handled with appropriate recovery actions.
• Resource allocation and network communication are efficiently managed throughout the container lifecycle.

At an individual operational task level, such as triggering an alert when memory consumption exceeds predefined allocation, it triggers an alert for graceful termination sequence workflow of the container application.

Key differences between automation and orchestration

Benefits of IT orchestration and automation

Since automation and orchestration are applied in different contexts, we can also expect different benefits from each. Those benefits can be multiplied by implementing both automation and orchestration across an organization.

Speed, scale, and efficiency

Most IT departments face a growing list of tasks and responsibilities — without a corresponding growth in headcount or budget. Orchestration and automation help make the job easier by performing core functions automatically.

For example, rather than finding every instance of a line of code and rewriting it, which could lead to omissions and errors, a developer could write a script to do the work, replacing the code in every instance with the new code.

Taking the most repetitive tasks and workflows off the plate of administrators frees them to address challenges that require the most imagination to solve, as well as plan, implement, and explore new opportunities for digital transformation.

24/7 operations and scalability

With the proper automation and orchestration workflows, businesses can achieve continuous operation, enabling tasks to be performed outside regular business hours and without manual intervention. Orchestration can make processes scalable and maximize uptime.

Example: An automated ecommerce system where an unexpected increase in traffic after-hours tells the system to provision additional server space on an ad-hoc basis — that’s orchestration fueling more automation.

(Related reading: scalability.)

Cost reductions

Automation saves money, and not just because it makes things faster. Standardization of processes and workflows helps:

• Reduce manual repetition.
• Minimize errors.
• Increase uptime.
• Improve employee experience and productivity.

Alongside these benefits, automation and orchestration help to ensure compliance and avoid costly penalties.

Automation and orchestration are essential for digital transformation

Everything we have come to know and value about automation applies to orchestration. In a world where we are constantly interacting with software applications interacting with other applications, making API calls, sharing vital information and otherwise operating at lightning speed, orchestration is essential to ensuring a positive end-user experience.

As applications move increasingly toward the cloud and containers, orchestration will become even more important, bringing together inputs from more sources to provide sophisticated and beneficial applications. Like automation, IT orchestration’s benefits are clear and the path to achieving them is well delineated. Orchestration will continue to be a key driver of digital transformation, with more of its features, functions and benefits integrated into the software applications that enterprises use every day.