IT Automation explained

In its simplest form, IT automation involves using software and systems to replace repeatable tasks and processes, reducing the need for manual effort and intervention (and the associated costs). IT automation not only accelerates manual processes but also frees up IT staff for more strategic work.

IT automation’s scope ranges from simple actions to autonomous IT deployment activities that respond to user behavior and other triggers. For example, an organization can automate various data center operations for faster IT operations.

In the context of virtualized networks and cloud services, the need for rapid infrastructure or service provisioning means that IT automation is essential. It helps IT organizations deliver what’s needed more quickly, accurately, and securely. Who wouldn’t want to provide IT production resources in less than a day versus taking much longer?

If you’re wondering what the difference is between this IT automation definition and orchestration, IT automation undertakes a task repeatedly without human intervention. Whereas orchestration is broader, with the user coordinating automated tasks to create an IT or business process or workflow.

Why is IT automation used?

IT automation replaces time-consuming IT tasks, allowing IT staff to better handle the increasing scale and complexity of IT operations (including the needs of cloud infrastructure). At a high level, with the benefits of IT automation covered later, it helps IT organizations to:

• Drive up operational efficiency and productivity
• Reduce costs
• Ensure consistency and reliability
• Standardize operations
• Reduce errors and improve accuracy
• Support scalability and growth
• Enhance security
• Improve compliance
• Improved monitoring
• Utilize resources better
• Deploy and update infrastructure and service faster
• Improve end-user experiences
• Support data-driven decision-making.

There are many potential IT automation use cases, such as network management, configuration, resource provisioning, and security automation, such as security monitoring and incident response.

IT automation employs software tools to describe and execute a series of detailed actions. The actions can be invoked manually or through the use of a trigger. An IT administrator can create more-complex IT automations by combining multiple (simple) IT automation scripts into a series. For example, using IT automation, if an IT workload stops responding, automated steps are triggered to restart it.

IT automation capabilities now include using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to add contextual intelligence to handle more unpredictable situations. For example, for security threat detection and response, AI-enabled capabilities can analyze network traffic, system logs, and user behavior to identify security threats in real time. IT automation can respond to these threats by isolating affected systems, blocking malicious traffic, or alerting security personnel.

Tools for IT automation

There are various IT automation tool types for different IT use cases. Examples of IT automation tools include those for:

• IT service management (ITSM) – fit-for-purpose ITSM tools provide workflow automation capabilities for improving the execution of IT processes that use native or third-party IT automation tools to undertake tasks.
• IT infrastructure automation – simplifying IT operations tasks such as configuration management, deployment, and provisioning. Examples of IT infrastructure automation include server and network provisioning.
• Cloud automation – hybrid cloud use requires IT automation to employ the optimal cloud computing environment for each workload, shifting workloads between cloud environments depending on circumstances.
• Continuous delivery (CD) – this DevOps approach automates the delivery of application changes. By automating the delivery of code to different environments, continuous delivery improves the speed and safety of the changes.
• Process automation – this includes robotic process automation (RPA) and business process automation (BPA). RPA uses APIs and scripts to produce autonomous execution without human intervention. BPA is more complex than RPA, focusing on the resource orchestration of people, applications, and systems.

IT organization use cases deliver a spectrum of IT automation benefits; these include:

• Increased velocity – IT automation speeds up data center and cloud operations. While an administrator can undertake tasks manually, they likely can’t provision and configure workloads in minutes at any time of day. By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, IT organizations gain productivity and free up their IT staff to focus on higher-value-add tasks.
• Reduced costs – automating repeatable IT tasks, such as deployment, service fulfillment, and patch management, saves money thanks to more efficient operations, fewer errors (and the associated “make good” costs), and potentially headcount reductions.
• Better end-user experiences – IT automation leads to faster incident, service request, and change handling, enhancing end-user experiences.
• Increased consistency and reliability – IT automation ensures tasks are consistently performed and automated processes are less prone to human error.
• Increased service availability – an IT organization can reduce downtime and improve disaster recovery by automating backup and recovery systems.
• Enhanced governance – IT automation brings consistency of execution plus easy-to-access audit trails.
• Better security – less human involvement and access to sensitive information reduces the possibility of breaches. IT automation also ensures security policies and procedures are consistently applied.
• Improved scalability – IT automation enables systems to scale for increased workloads without a corresponding increase in manual effort.
• Resource Management: Automated systems can dynamically allocate and manage resources based on demand, improving scalability.
• Increased flexibility – it’s often easier to change IT automation than to bring about change in traditional manual processes where people either resist change or unintentionally revert to the old ways of working.

A single-vendor approach to IT automation offers IT organizations various benefits, including:

• Compatibility and simplified integration – with a single IT automation vendor, the various IT automation tools and solutions are designed to work together seamlessly. This reduces compatibility issues and integration challenges. A single-vendor IT automation approach will also likely provide a unified IT automation platform where the components communicate and function cohesively.
• A single point of contact for support and maintenance – this simplifies issue resolution and reduces the time spent coordinating with multiple vendors to resolve issues. Having a single supplier also provides consistency in service and support quality.
• Cost efficiency – multiple purchases with a single IT automation vendor can lead to better pricing, reducing overall IT automation costs. Product consistency can also reduce the associated training time and costs.
• Easier updates and upgrades – a single IT automation vendor can provide coordinated updates and upgrades to speed up change and avoid compatibility issues.
• Consistent user experience – a single IT automation vendor should provide a consistent user interface across all solutions, improving usability.
• Faster deployment – implementing and scaling IT automation solutions is quicker with a single IT automation vendor, especially because integration and configuration complexities are reduced.
• Better analytics and reporting – integrated data enables more effective analytics and reporting capabilities and provides better insights based on the entire IT automation ecosystem.

While IT automation has many benefits, there are also challenges to consider. These include:

• The time to value – the complete portfolio of IT automation requirements might appear challenging, but using an agile approach and a prioritized IT automation plan will help.
• Employee resistance to change – changing the traditional way of working will likely elicit change resistance. Using organizational change management tools and techniques will help address this.
• The increased impact of errors – an error in IT automation results more quickly than a manual error. Plus, it’s repeated in every task execution until it’s caught and corrected.
• The cost of IT automation – automation might save time and money, but there are additional costs to consider. First, in procuring the IT automation software. Second, in setting up the required automations and ongoing additions and changes. The IT automation savings will usually outweigh these. However, the upfront costs might be a challenge for some organizations.
• Access to suitably skilled people – the people and skills required to set up and run IT automation software might need to be hired.
• Complexity – as IT automation use increases, it becomes more complex and requires greater management effort.

The use cases for IT automation cover a broad spectrum of IT operations tasks, including the following IT automation examples:

• ITSM process streamlining – workflow automation speeds up process execution and helps to minimize delays and bottlenecks. For example, automated service request fulfillment.
• Application deployment – whether an organization uses a traditional or continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) deployment approach, IT automation helps them swiftly and safely progress from commit and build to testing to deployment.
• Security and compliance – organizations can use IT automation to define and enforce risk management, security, and compliance policies. They can also use IT automation to detect intrusions and remediate any identified vulnerabilities or other issues.
• Infrastructure provisioning – roll out deployments with IT automation that integrates with the organization’s existing infrastructure and management tools.
• Monitoring – IT automation can monitor all the endpoints connecting to the network to ensure their optimal operation. Automated fixes can be applied when needed, or people can be alerted to issues.
• Patch management – IT automation can undertake the deployment of routine maintenance patches.
• Configuration management – once provisioning is automated, IT automation can be used to configure the provisioned infrastructure items.

The key steps in defining an IT automation strategy are:

• Defining the IT automation strategy objectives and goals – these should align with business objectives and highlight the areas where IT automation will provide the most value. For example, cost reduction, efficiency gains, or improved service quality.
• Assessing the status quo – evaluating existing IT processes to identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and the areas that will benefit most from IT automation. It also includes identifying capability gaps that need to be addressed to support the ambitions of IT automation.
• Identifying the IT automation opportunities – to start these might be repetitive, time-consuming tasks, such as software updates, backups, and routine maintenance, that can be automated. Complex processes can benefit from IT automation, too. For example, resource allocation and security monitoring.
• Prioritizing the identified IT automation initiatives – evaluating the potential impact of automating each identified task or process and prioritizing the initiatives with the highest value and business goal alignment.
• Selecting the right tools – consider tools for process automation, workflow orchestration, and AI-driven automation and ensure the chosen tools integrate seamlessly with existing IT systems and applications.
• Developing an IT automation roadmap – creating a phased implementation roadmap that outlines each IT automation initiative’s timeline, milestones, and deliverables.
• Establishing IT automation governance and compliance – a governance framework is needed to oversee IT automation initiatives to ensure they adhere to organizational policies and standards and comply with relevant regulatory requirements and industry standards.
• Measuring and evaluating IT automation progress and success – defining key performance indicators (KPIs) and a continual improvement capability.

IT automation is nothing new. However, the technology involved and the associated capabilities continue to evolve. The key driver influencing the future of IT automation trends is AI – IT automation will have increased intelligence and autonomy. For example:

• Learning from historical data to make decisions based on patterns
• Predicting potential issues before they become critical
• Analyzing vast amounts of data to identify security threats in real-time
• Recognizing unusual patterns that might indicate a security threat
• Optimizing resource allocation by predicting demand and adjusting resources accordingly
• AI-driven analytics can provide better insights into capacity needs
• Providing end-users with personalized support through chatbots and virtual assistants
• Enabling systems to automatically resolve issues without human intervention (often called self-healing capabilities).

However, all of these capabilities are already here. The real future of IT automation using AI is still to come to fruition.