It is common for someone who browses the Internet or watches a video on YouTube or scrolls through the feeds on any social media platform to come across terms such as AI, Automation, Cloud, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS and more. These terms are more than just buzzwords in the IT industry but key technologies that can dramatically change the way businesses run and create value for their brands. The cloud, once a technological curiosity, has now become one of the essential components for organizations to modernize their IT infrastructure and enable faster adoption of state-of-the-art technologies.

A research article conducted and published by McKinsey indicates that organizations who have adopted cloud automation could introduce new capabilities to their customers more quickly, innovate more easily, and scale more efficiently—while also reducing technology risk. 

As the number of brands and organizations that profit from implementing any type of cloud strategy is on rise, organizations are vying with each other to simplify their business operations. The ability to free up resources so that they concentrate more on higher-value tasks rather than spending the same time on tasks that are usually repetitive and trivial in the practical sense is what makes cloud automation a great enabler for digital transformation. Moreover, automating your cloud platform increases agility and helps reduce both operational costs and time to market for new services. This blog gives a clear idea about cloud automation and why it is on the rise and a coherent IT strategy for your organization.

Cloud Automation VS Cloud Orchestration

Before getting to the nitty-gritties of cloud automation and its benefits, it is better to know the difference between cloud automation and cloud orchestration as they seem similar at first but, in fact, different.  

In general, cloud orchestration and automation are used interchangeably. Simply put, cloud automation, one of the latest, cutting-edge technologies that has been gaining traction in the corporate world now, is using cloud management tools for completing tasks without any manual support or help. While cloud orchestration is deployment and co-ordination of multiple or a series of automated tasks across multiple platforms, locations and systems.  Though cloud automation can be stand-alone initiative and capable of enhancing your DevOps maturity and entire IT operations, combining both cloud automation and orchestration adds up to better results in terms of agility, efficiency and resiliency. 

Reasons why cloud automation is a necessity in the new normal and to IT teams: 

Not only does switching to cloud automation accelerate processes but also enable businesses to achieve greater profitability, business agility and flexibility. It has been witnessed that companies that scale and configure their cloud resources manually encounter errors that might affect the performance or availability of their systems. As fortune smiles on the corporate world, there is a solution to this dilemma, and it is cloud automation. Here are some of the reasons how cloud automation benefits IT teams in modern enterprises.

#1 Minimized IT Infrastructure Costs  

A strong, resilient and secure IT infrastructure plays a very crucial part in the success of an organization. Migrating sensitive data and other business-critical information to cloud with top-notch confidentiality and security protocols is no mean feat but a complex process, which cannot be overlooked at all cost. This is where cloud automation comes to the rescue and gives the upper hand in minimizing the costs spent on IT infrastructure provisioning. When most of the manual cloud operations can be automated, it becomes easier for employees to focus more on high-value tasks as they would require real-time, accurate problem-solving skills.  As cloud automation allows organizations to take complete control over their cloud platforms, there would be more transparency and security, giving the teams centralized authority.  

#2 Continuous Application Deployment 

One major driver of customer retention and great user experience is continuously providing new features and updates to the end-users. This way companies ensure they stay competitive and customer-centric in the market. One of the latest trends that gained traction during the pandemic, the time when companies had to roll out various new updates when there has been a surge in their customer base, was the incorporation of CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) and DevOps. With CI/CD and DevOps, companies could reduce the frequency of technical errors that are common whenever a new application or an update gets introduced to end-users. Because the cloud is at the heart of DevOps, automating it is the easiest and most lucrative decision.  

#3 Cloud automation tools are highly scalable and performant  

Modern enterprises need modern solutions. And modern solutions are expected to be scalable and flexible as the business grows. Recently, a survey conducted by an IT firm indicated that over 400 companies who have a mix of cloud and legacy on-prem IT infrastructure could outperform competitors who still rely on manual activities. Moreover, managing cloud services manually might seem easier at the initial stages of a business. However, at an enterprise level, management of big data in thousands of virtual machines would eventually become complex and need an advanced, scalable solution.  

#4 Simpler processes with cloud automation 

“If we don’t spend time on automation today, we may be out of business in five years.” says Johan Esbjörner, technical lead for the Cloud Center of Excellence at Husqvarna. Automating both front and back-office processes results in tighter DevOps, faster delivery and centralized governance, which are some of the key drivers of digital transformation.   

#5 Improves security and agility 

The concern for the risk of human error, insiders who have access to crucial, sensitive data is inevitable in today’s corporate world. When mission critical tasks are automated, it automatically involves less people who get access to such data. With cloud automation, enterprises can have more power and control over multiple infrastructures running across the organization. This way companies can set up resources and manage processes in a standard and streamlined manner. A survey conducted by 2nd Watch emphasizes that companies that have automated cloud infrastructure experienced increased agility; for example, 63% respondents who have participated in the survey said that they could deploy new applications in less than six weeks.  

Get the most of the cloud with cloud automation 

For the past decade, the IT sector has massively benefited from various technologies that created a paradigm shift in how businesses can communicate and engage their customers. Owing to the pandemic and disruptive global economy, the need to digitalize the IT infrastructure is one of the core priorities for every enterprise. Every new technology comes with a new set of capabilities and features that can be rightly leveraged to reap the utmost benefits it encapsulates. So does cloud automation. As most companies benefit from the cloud in one way or another, cloud automation certainly plays a vital role in accelerating the speed at which companies are adopting cutting-edge technologies to stay ahead of the competition.  

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