What are the risks and benefits of IT automation and orchestration?

1 Benefits of automation

Automation can bring many benefits to IT operations, such as reducing human errors and increasing consistency, saving time and resources, and enhancing performance and availability. Automation can follow predefined rules and standards to eliminate mistakes that could cause failures, delays, or security breaches. It can also speed up repetitive or complex tasks, free up staff for more strategic or creative work, and optimize the use of hardware, software, or bandwidth. Additionally, automation can monitor and respond to system events, alerts, or anomalies to ensure services are running smoothly, securely, and efficiently.

2 Risks of automation

Automation can pose some risks to IT operations, such as creating dependencies and vulnerabilities that can lead to potential failure, bugs, or attacks. Additionally, automation can obscure the details and logic behind processes, making it difficult to troubleshoot, audit, or modify them. Finally, automation can lock in the processes to a specific set of rules and standards, reducing flexibility and innovation. Poorly designed, tested, maintained, documented, communicated, governed, aligned, reviewed or updated automation can cause more harm than good and lead to confusion, conflict or compliance issues that could hinder the growth and improvement of services.

3 Benefits of orchestration

Orchestration can build on the benefits of automation, and add more value to IT operations. It can improve integration and collaboration by connecting and synchronizing multiple automated processes across different systems, platforms, or domains. Orchestration can also facilitate the communication and coordination among different teams, roles, or stakeholders. Additionally, it can increase scalability and agility by automating and optimizing the allocation and utilization of resources. Moreover, it can support the adoption and adaptation of new technologies, methodologies, or standards. Furthermore, orchestration can enhance customer satisfaction and value by automating and streamlining service requests, incidents, or changes. It can also provide more visibility and insight into the service performance, quality, or impact. All of these benefits combined enable a faster and smoother service experience for customers that is data-driven and customer-centric.

4 Risks of orchestration

Orchestration can introduce some risks to IT operations, such as increasing complexity and interdependency, as well as requiring more skills and resources. Orchestrated processes involve multiple automated processes, systems, platforms, or domains, which can cause unexpected errors, conflicts, or bottlenecks if not well-architected, mapped, or tested. Additionally, orchestration demands more advanced and diverse skills and tools to design, implement, and manage the orchestrated processes. Without the right support, training, or equipment, it can result in inefficiency, frustration, or waste. Furthermore, orchestration affects more aspects and stakeholders of the service delivery and creates more potential points of failure, risk, or dispute. If not well-monitored, secured, or governed it can lead to performance degradation, security breaches, or compliance violations.

5 How to implement automation and orchestration effectively

For successful automation and orchestration, IT operations teams should assess the current and desired states of services, identify gaps and opportunities, and choose the right tools, platforms, and frameworks. Automation and orchestration processes should be designed with clear objectives, scope, and logic that adhere to standards for quality, security, and compliance. Before deploying them, these processes must be tested and validated. After deployment, their performance, impact, and value should be monitored and measured. Documentation of the processes should be communicated to relevant teams, roles, and stakeholders with training and support as needed. Lastly, feedback should be sought regularly to review and update the automation and orchestration processes.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?