Any successful organization, especially one that is experiencing a digital transformation, must have IT automation as an ardent prerequisite. Orchestrating IT automation improves efficiency and can lead to a hyper-automation business model in which automation is present in all aspects of the company. Hyperautomation allows the entire business to run on an auto-pilot mode so that the real pilots or human staff can focus on the primary objectives of bringing in innovation and success.
As businesses advance on their digitization goals, the burden on the stout shoulders of the IT staff continues to increase and multiply. Cloud, virtualization, edge computing, and other microservices have entered a mainstream acceptance phase. In today’s IT-centric world, they are being adopted at record rates, even though most IT teams’ personnel have stayed static. As a result, overburdened IT departments are having trouble keeping up with the size of their infrastructure and the variety of technologies they handle.
The problem persists: how do you supply high-quality IT services more quickly while also expanding digital transformation activities without raising expenses or headcount?
There is a lot to consider when we talk about automating IT chores. Automation can be as simple as automating one-off operations or as complex as fully automated deployments. IT automation and orchestration are linked, but they’re not the same thing:
- Making routine operations automatic is what IT automation entails.
- Orchestration is the process of applying this to an entire process or practice to improve and secure operations as a whole.
Why implement IT automation across business departments?
IT automation has a variety of applications. For example, for improved productivity in your firm, automate the following areas in your digital enterprise:
Cloud-based workflows
It’s never been more critical to automate normal cloud activities for enterprises running multi-cloud and hybrid cloud setups. You get nearer to full orchestration and finally operate at top efficacy by incorporating IT automation into your cloud operations.
The assistance/service desk
Every business has (or should have!) a service desk, which is primed for automation. But, as ITSM expert Kirstie Magowan points out, there are several instances where simple process automation can have an immediate impact:
Software development and DevOps: DevOps emphasizes automation as a core element. You aren’t completely embracing DevOps unless you have automated your software development process. DevOps automation can be used across the software development lifecycle (SDLC), particularly in the following areas:
- Automation of deployment (CI/CD)
- Automated testing
- Monitoring
- Management of logs (Explore the close roles of automation and DevOps practices.)
Other processes in business
According to Gartner, automating business processes entails:
The use of modern technologies focused on the automation of complicated business processes can go beyond traditional data manipulation and record-keeping activities.
These cognitive technologies are currently driving improvements in process automation, such as:
- Automation of robotic processes (RPA)
- Computer-assisted learning (ML)
- Processing of natural language (NLP)
- Analytics that predicts the future
By 2025, the market for Business Process Automation (BPA) is expected to be worth USD 232 billion.
Configuration
When you manage a digital firm, the configuration is one of those necessary duties that suck out a lot of time and productivity of the employees. There’s no shortage of things to configure with multiple cloud services, servers, networks, and environments.
You can automate settings in the following ways:
- Ensure that environments are set up correctly.
- Error reduction
- Boost your overall productivity
- Provisioning of resources
Provisioning resources is critical while working in a digital firm. This refers to the sharing and allocating of space as well as user access to the servers, programs, and cloud processes that you’ll need to accomplish your job well. It’s also a fantastic spot to automate.
Response and monitoring
Security process automation, such as monitoring and response, can enable IT personnel to focus on bug fixes, testing, and infrastructure concerns by offloading mundane security operations.
How Will Automation Benefit You?
You can maximize your resources and save expenses while boosting digital experiences using automation and AIOps. Here’s how these technologies affect major business goals in more detail:
REDUCTIONS IN PRICES
- Automate time-consuming, repetitive procedures and processes to save money
- Reduce support expenses by reducing escalations and allowing front-line analysts to handle more issues and service requests (known as “left-shifting”)
- Increase the amount of infrastructure under administration per person
STREAMLINED INCIDENT RESPONSE
- Automate diagnostic and remediation procedures and processes to reduce mean-time-to-identify (MTTI) and mean-time-to-resolution (MTTR)
- With total access into complicated IT environments and a precise CMDB, you can quickly diagnose problems
- Fix problems on your own, avoiding outages and cutting resolution time from hours to seconds
PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY HAVE BEEN IMPROVED
- Prevent problems from affecting the business by performing proactive health inspections
- To improve performance and dependability, automate regular maintenance procedures
EXPERIENCE FOR CUSTOMERS AND EMPLOYEES IMPROVED
- Combine automation with chatbots and virtual agents to provide self-service choices.
- Remove hated, time-consuming duties to free up resources for more creative work
OPTIMIZATION OF THE PROCESS
- Regardless of technical variances, standardize methods and workflows to produce repeatable, consistent, and simplified operations
- Automate complex operations to reduce human error
COMPLIANCE AND GOVERNANCE
- Maintain audit trails and automate paperwork for compliance
- Enforce subject matter expert-designed best practices by encoding them in automation that can be deployed at scale
AUTOMATION AND AIOPS CAN ALSO HELP SERVICE PROVIDERS:
- Achieve a faster time to revenue by onboarding new clients swiftly and seamlessly
- Increase revenue by introducing new, innovative services as rapidly as possible
- By expediting service delivery and boosting performance to consistently fulfill SLAs, you may improve customer satisfaction, reduce attrition, and eliminate penalty costs
Conclusion: IT Automation in the Future
IT automation will continue to be beneficial to businesses seeking to transform into digital enterprises. Companies have just recently begun to realize the benefits of machine learning in today’s commercial environment. As the expertise of machine learning applications in business grows, so will automation of vital infrastructure.
Aside from increasingly innovative commercial applications for machine learning, the evolution of scripting tools will revolutionize how automation is employed in IT. Finally, automation allows you to uncover new indicators that provide valuable information about your company’s success.
Enhanced and smooth IT operations define the success of any organization. Hence, AutomationEdge is on a mission to help businesses streamline their IT operations with advanced technologies like Conversational IT, AI, and RPA. Request a demo here or visit www.automationedge.com to know more about how these technologies can help you step up your IT operations.