More than 90% of companies will be working with an automation architect by 2025, compared with less than 20% today, according to Gartner. The challenges ofinfrastructure automation (or infrastructure automation ) are high for I&O(Infrastructure & Operations) teams. Indeed, more and more organizations, such as large groups and small and medium-sized businesses, are turning to infrastructure automation based on artificial intelligence (AI or Infrastructure Automation) and machine learning.
The advantages are obvious: tasks previously performed manually (installation, configuration, infrastructure maintenance) can now be performed by software. This not only saves time, but also reduces errors. It is therefore normal that IT departments are interested in this and are starting to implement such solutions in the information system. It is a question at the heart of the competitiveness of companies. Gartner even popularizes the term hyperautomationGartner has even popularized the term "IT automation", a concept that encompasses the entire trend of automating the entire organization, beyond the IT infrastructure. When it comes to IT infrastructure, there are several ways to implement an automation strategy. The Gartner study highlights those that inspire "the most confidence": VMware vRealize (56%), Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform (35%) and Puppet (16.5%).
According to a French survey, CIOs expect 3 main characteristics from their automation tools:
- Maximum ease of use;
- Integration with their security processes;
- An association to their programming interfaces (API).
According to these same CIOs,infrastructure automation aims to achieve 3 main objectives:
- standardize the IT operating process;
- reduce production time;
- optimize technical support.
Automation, essential to the DevOps model
The DevOps model is based on the automation of routine operating tasks. Managing them requires a platform that also offers integrated automation tools, and that works with any type of infrastructure. And yet, although many companies have already taken the plunge, nearly 4 out of 5 organizations say they are stuck in the intermediate stages ofDevOps evolution .
To succeed in DevOps, you need to overcome certain challenges, includinginfrastructure automation. This is why by 2023, 90% of companies could fail in this mission if they do not create a sharedself-service platform. This toolkit allows I&O(Infrastructure & Operations) teams to efficiently support the work of DevOps teams.
At the heart of the automation idea in DevOps is the CI/CD approach, a concept related to continuous integration, distribution and deployment. The CI/CD approach relies on automation to increase the frequency of distribution of infrastructure and information system applications, specifically at the development stage.
Download our guide to DevOps tools for deploying the approach
The shift from automation to orchestration
Automation makes it possible to do without human intervention. As such, it has certain performance-related advantages. However, it is essential to coordinate and assemble each of the tasks of theautomation infrastructure to make it a global and structured process. This is the role of orchestration.
Orchestration tools go beyond automation. Where automation is about a given task, orchestration is about how those tasks relate to each other. This allows developers and I&O teams to quickly build new platforms without having to use custom scripts. In this sense, orchestration is an evolution of automation, but it is only possible if the IS and infrastructure capabilities are sufficient.
Moving from infrastructure automation to information system orchestration involves the practical implementation of SOAP platforms. TheSimple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) allows programs running on different operating systems to communicate with each other using HTTP and XML. Programs as different as Windows and Linux for example can communicate with each other.
The cloud distributed
The cloud distributed is one of the ways of optimizing application deployment. It involves running a public cloud service in different locations, so that it can be managed more quickly.
A strong trend in 2021 and even the future of cloud according to Gartner, the idea is to progressively move towards 100% availability and optimal performance of IT infrastructures. The challenge? Taking advantage of the power but also the ease of use of managed services by minimizing latency, a solid foundation for the deployment of automation.
To learn more about infrastructure in cloud, download the guideide!
Self-service automation
Self-service automation is a group ofinfrastructure automation tools that help users and I&O teams launch automated processes, which are usually the prerogative of the IT department. In a nutshell, it allows more people in the company to automate their IT processes.
While the number of interactions with users is increasing dramatically, the resources of IT teams are not. In concrete terms, this is what allows users, for example, to simply reset their passwords themselves, or to easily launch theonboarding of a newcomer (i.e. his integration and familiarization with the tools).
Self-service automation is a principle that facilitates the end-user experience and allows IT teams to delegate certain tasks to them.
Automation of hybrid platform management
Hybriddigital infrastructure management (HDIM) is a trendy term in the world of cloud. Depending on the situation, it refers to infrastructures where on-premises datacenters, private clouds and public clouds coexist. Hybrid environments make managing the infrastructure, network, applications and users complex. This makes it very complicated to maintain and scale such an infrastructure manually. That's where automation comes in. It allows the same management rules to be applied to on-premises systems and resources at cloud, ensuring consistency.
In practice, it is very rare that a company is satisfied with one solution or another. It therefore seems obvious to systematically involve the automation of the management of this type of infrastructure.
Automation has therefore become essential in all organizations that have complex infrastructures, deploy applications frequently and rapidly and wish to optimize the value of their IT teams. Implementinginfrastructure automation processes is a strategic step to stay competitive in your market. Don't wait to be left behind and start as soon as possible.
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