IT automation, or infrastructure automation, replaces manual, often error-prone IT tasks and processes with operations performed automatically. Automation is often used for processes that occur often, such as configuring end-user devices and servers or addressing common errors.
Infrastructure automation is vital for efficient, cost-effective IT operations. It is so crucial that Gartner
predicts that by 2025, 70% of enterprises will be using structured automation for its efficiency and
flexibility.
Here are some Infrastructure Automation Benefits:
IT and DevOps pros are flocking to automation to ease infrastructure deployment. Application and end-user
device deployment are two hot areas. Here are four more benefits:
Efficiency: Using automation instead of doing a task manually improves efficiency.
Reducing errors: By automating processes that are proven to work, errors are reduced or even
eliminated.
Security: Misconfigurations are one of the biggest security threats. Automation performs these
configurations in a way that is proven to work.
Compliance: Compliance processes help keep the IT environment secure and data safe from hackers or
data leakage. Once these processes have been perfected, they can be performed flawlessly through automation.
In general, the process is first performed, and then perfected as a manual operation, then turned into a
workflow or automated process.
IT automation can be used for very simple processes, but steps can also be daisy-chained to perform complex
tasks. A higher level of IT automation is where processes such as IT deployments are invoked and performed
autonomously based on certain triggers or end-user behaviors.
Today, infrastructure automation is commonly based on code that executes processes determined by an IT expert,
what those actions are and exactly how they are to be taken.
Complex automation processes can be created by bringing together multiple scripts or pieces of code.
Most manual IT functions can be replaced by an automated process. Here are three common cases:
Configuration: Gartner and Forrester have long argued that 80% of SaaS breaches stem from
misconfiguration, inappropriate user behavior or mistakenly elevated user permissions. When enterprises
correctly define, apply and maintain configurations, many of these problems disappear.
Finding and solving problems: Automation can be combined with monitoring to discover issues, perform
root cause analysis and then trigger an automated fix.
An IT automation tool could monitor the configuration of software, systems and other infrastructure components,
discover unexpected or unauthorized changes and automatically take corrective actions. This could include
restoring correct configuration settings or shifting workloads from a down server to an available one.
Application delivery: DevOps teams use automation to speed up application development, testing and
delivery. In this case, DevOps often uses code as the functional basis of automation.
There are several products and vendors in the IT infrastructure automation space:
Ansible: Open-source tool for deployment, configuration and orchestration.
Chef: IT automation that uses an ‘as code’ approach to policy configuration and
infrastructure.Works with various automation partners, including Ansible, Jenkins and Docker.
Docker: Automation aimed at containerization.
Jenkins: Aimed at application delivery and orchestration.
Puppet: Uses ‘as code’ approach to automating DevOps changes and configuration.
Terraform: Provides code automation.
The IT Infrastructure Management Solutions of Progress Chef
Chef Infrastructure Management solutions easily and quickly apply configurations. Chef helps DevOps teams adopt modern best practices, including:
Test Driven Development: Configuration change testing runs parallel to application change testing.
AI Ops Support: IT operations scale with data consolidations and third-party integrations.
Self-Service: Agile delivery teams can deploy and provision infrastructure on demand.
Benefits of Chef Infrastructure Management
Change Apps Safely: Chef automates systems’ adherence to the declared desired state, reduces security
delays and avoids fire drills.
Run Everywhere: Chef infrastructure automation solutions support on-premises, hybrid, multi-OS,
multi-cloud and complex legacy environments.The software automates Windows, Mac, Linux and more.
Scale Easily: Major companies, including GM, Meta/Facebook, SAP and Bank Hapoalim, rely on Chef to
automate massively.
Get Actionable Insights: IT easily filters real-time data that is reachable and actionable for every
node under management.
Chef Infrastructure Management supports infrastructure as code (IAC), automating the managing and testing of
configurations and system state.The policy-based approach implements test-driven development and idempotency
principles.
Learn about our leading infrastructure management automation solutions by visiting the Chef Infrastructure Management page.
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