Discover What is IT Automation, its Trends, Best Practices, & Benefits to Streamline Workflows, Optimize Resources, & Drive Growth

IT automation is rapidly becoming essential for enterprises looking to simplify complex IT landscapes, accelerate service delivery, and drive digital transformation.

According to a 2017 survey, 78% of IT professionals reported increasing pressure on IT infrastructure and processes stemming from surging data volumes, hybrid cloud adoption, sophisticated cyberthreats, and dynamic business demands.[1]

IT automation provides a solution by infusing intelligence into manual, repetitive tasks and processes. As an automation expert with over 10 years of experience, I‘ve helped various enterprises harness automation to optimize efficiency, resilience, agility, and innovation across IT operations and application development.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll share my insights on:

• Key use cases and examples of IT automation
• Top tools and solutions for IT automation
• The rationale and benefits driving adoption
• Strategies for successful implementation
• Recent trends and innovations in the space

Let‘s get started.

What is IT Automation and How Does it Work?

IT automation employs various tools and technologies like robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), and specialized enterprise software to streamline and simplify manual effort in IT processes and tasks.

It involves creating workflows, scripts, algorithms, and conditional logic that can execute essential IT activities like monitoring systems, deploying software, backing up data, provisioning infrastructure, and more with minimal or no human intervention.

By setting up automated rules and predefined instructions, IT automation shifts repetitive and routine tasks away from IT teams so they can focus on more impactful work that requires strategic thinking, creativity, and innovation.

Overall, properly implemented automation enhances operational resilience, efficiency, speed, accuracy, and consistency while allowing IT functions to better adapt as business needs evolve.

Common Examples and Use Cases of IT Automation

To understand how IT automation works in practice, let‘s explore some key examples across IT management, operations, and software delivery:

Infrastructure and Cloud Environment Automation

IT automation is invaluable for simplifying the orchestration and administration of complex IT infrastructure and cloud platforms:

• Automated Server Provisioning: Automatically deploy and configure new servers or virtual machines based on predefined configuration policies and scripts.

• Automated Network Configuration: Automatically manage network devices and ensure consistent firewall rules and access controls.

• Automated Cloud Orchestration: Automatically provision, scale, and manage the lifecycles of cloud resources.

• Automated Backups: Automatically backup critical databases, file systems, and data stores to ensure business continuity.

Automating Software Delivery Processes

IT automation can significantly accelerate software delivery by automating build, testing, and deployment pipelines:

• Automated Build Scripts: Automatically compile code changes into build artifacts that can be deployed.

• Automated Testing: Execute automated test suites across environments to validate new builds. Leverage AI for smarter test automation.

• Automated Deployments: Use DevOps tools like Jenkins to automatically deploy approved builds across development, test, staging, and production environments.

• Automated Monitoring: Continuously collect metrics on software performance post-deployment and trigger alerts or auto-scaling actions as needed.

Automating IT Support and Operations

IT automation also facilitates delivery of efficient IT support and operations:

• Incident Management Automation: Use chatbots and natural language processing to resolve common service desk tickets. Escalate complex issues to humans.

• Automated Knowledge Management: Create knowledge bases that employees can query to quickly find answers to common questions.

• Automated Asset Management: Automatically audit and manage hardware and software assets across the infrastructure.

• Automated Alerting: Get alerts for critical security events, resource utilization thresholds, and system outages.

The Automation Opportunity is Massive

A study found that on average, IT employees spend 25-50% of their time on repetitive tasks that could potentially be automated.[2] This massive opportunity for automation serves as a key driving force propelling investment and adoption across enterprises.

Top IT Automation Tools and Software

Many robust enterprise-grade tools and platforms exist to facilitate IT automation. Here are some major categories:

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Tools: UiPath, Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, Microsoft Power Automate

Overview: RPA tools use software bots and artificial intelligence to automate repetitive, rules-based human workflows. Helpful for IT process automation.

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Tools: Terraform, Ansible, AWS CloudFormation, Puppet, Chef

Overview: IaC tools automate infrastructure provisioning and app deployments by treating configurations as code.

IT Process Automation

Tools: ServiceNow, BMC Helix, Microsoft Power Automate

Overview: ITPA tools simplify service delivery via automated workflows, runbooks, self-service portals.

Workload Automation (WLA)

Tools: Control-M, UC4, Automic, Stonebranch

Overview: WLA provides end-to-end automation with advanced workload orchestration capabilities.

IT Service Management Automation

Tools: ServiceNow, Cherwell, Ivanti, BMC Helix

Overview: ITSM tools like Cherwell automate support processes like incident management workflows.

Test Automation

Tools: Selenium, Tricentis Tosca, TestComplete, Ranorex, Testim

Overview: Automated test execution tools for web, mobile, API testing. Incorporating AI.

This list highlights some of the major players, but numerous tools exist for every facet of IT automation ranging from database automation to AI-powered IT operations (AIOps).

The key is choosing tools tailored to your specific automation use cases and IT environment.

Why Enterprises Need IT Automation

Several important factors are driving pervasive adoption of IT automation:

Accelerating Pace of Change

As an automation expert, I‘ve seen firsthand how IT environments constantly grow more complex. Emerging technologies like Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, quantum computing, and new cloud-native architectures further complicate IT.

IT automation and orchestration foster agility, enabling faster adaptation in the face of rapid change.

Shortage of Skilled IT Workers

With technology expanding into every industry, demand for IT workers with emerging skills in cloud, analytics, automation, security, and more continues rising exponentially.

However, supply of such skilled talent has not kept pace. A study found that 95% of organizations face an IT skills shortage.[3]

IT automation allows lean IT teams to accomplish more in less time by automating repetitive tasks.

Surging Volumes of Data

Today‘s deluge of data provides immense opportunities as well as challenges. Organizations need automation to efficiently collect, process, analyze, and derive value from big data.

IDC forecasts the global datasphere to grow to 175 zettabytes by 2025.[4]

Scaling Digital Transformation

79% of enterprises have a digital transformation (DX) roadmap.[5] Automation and orchestration allow IT to rapidly deliver innovations at scale to meet DX imperatives.

Key Benefits of IT Automation

Based on my decade of experience, here are the core benefits enterprises can realize by implementing automation:

Increased Efficiency

By eliminating slow, repetitive human effort, automation allows IT processes to execute much faster. This results in significant efficiency gains.

Enhanced Productivity

Relieving IT staff from mundane tasks allows them to undertake creative, strategic projects that maximize their potential and impact. McKinsey estimates automation could free up 30% of the average IT worker‘s time.[6]

Improved Accuracy and Compliance

Automation minimizes errors by ensuring standardized, precise execution of tasks. It also strengthens compliance by applying consistent security and regulatory controls.

Greater Agility and Scalability

Automated processes can be easily reconfigured and updated to align with changing business objectives. This enables faster adaptability to evolving IT needs and scale.

Cost Savings

Automating manual efforts reduces operational costs associated with human labor. Gartner forecasts RPA alone could generate cost savings of $3.4 billion by 2024.[7]

Enhanced Customer Experience

Automation of mundane tasks like password resets frees up support teams to handle complex issues and improve customer satisfaction.

Resilience Against Disruptions

Automating failover, backups, and recovery enhances resilience and business continuity in the event of disasters or outages.

Developing a Successful IT Automation Strategy

To maximize value, organizations need an intentional strategy for IT automation adoption. Here are some best practices I recommend based on experience:

Set Clear Goals and Outcomes

Be explicit about what you want to accomplish via automation, whether it’s improved compliance, faster deployment speeds, or streamlined cloud management. This drives tool selection and workflow design.

Assess Technical Feasibility

Evaluate integrations needed, availability of APIs/connectors, infrastructure constraints, and other factors that influence the viability and ease of automation.

Involve Stakeholders Early

Get buy-in from IT teams, business leaders, and end-users by communicating benefits. Address concerns transparently by providing training and reassurance.

Start Small, Then Scale

Run controlled pilots to validate tools and workflows before expanding automation to mission-critical systems. Take an iterative approach.

Develop Feedback Loops

Collect user feedback, monitor KPIs, assess results, and continuously refine automated processes to maximize value.

Focus on Augmenting Humans

Automation should empower IT teams, not replace them. Keep humans in the loop for complex cognitive tasks, exceptions handling, and oversight.

Emerging IT Automation Trends and Innovations

Some cutting-edge IT automation trends I‘m excited about include:

• AI and Machine Learning – Incorporating AI, ML, and natural language processing for self-learning, intelligent automation.
• Hyperautomation – Orchestrating multiple tools like RPA, AI, and IoT for end-to-end intelligent automation.
• No-Code Automation – Empowering citizen developers to automate workflows with no-code platforms.
• DevOps and CI/CD Automation – Expanding automation across development pipelines and operations.
• Cloud-Native Automation – Automating provisioning and orchestration for Kubernetes, serverless apps.
• AIOps – Applying automation and ML to IT operations activities like health monitoring and anomaly detection.

These innovations promise to unlock the next level of automation capability, intelligence, and business value.

Key Challenges of IT Automation

While highly beneficial, IT automation also poses some common challenges:

• Integrating automation across disparate legacy systems can be difficult.
• Automated workflows may not handle every edge scenario.
• Automation requires upfront investment and developing specialized skills.
• Cultural and organizational change management is crucial to drive adoption. Employees may perceive automation as displacing jobs.
• Close monitoring and maintenance of automated solutions is essential for sustainability.
• Over-automation can reduce flexibility needed to handle nuanced cases. Human oversight remains critical.

However, by taking a strategic approach, providing training and support to teams, and proactively addressing these concerns, enterprises can work through the hurdles and accelerate value realization.

The future promises to bring even smarter, more seamless human-machine collaboration through automation. Used prudently, IT automation serves to augment human creativity and productivity, allowing talent to focus on high-value innovation.

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