Zero Touch Operations.
There is a common belief in the industry that the future of operations will be largely composed of zero-touch operations. I want to take a look at what this means and how this may change the role of DevOps, InfoSec and Site Reliability Engineers.
Taken from the context of a DevOps environment, zero-touch operations will most likely be defined by a combination of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. For example, containers and platform-as-a-service offerings can provide some level of automation through the use of scheduling software and orchestration modules, while artificial intelligence can be used to automate the provisioning process. This would allow organizations to reduce or even eliminate human interaction from the provisioning process and could potentially allow organizations to scale resources up or down based on demand or other triggers.
However, it's also possible for AI solutions to create security vulnerabilities as well. An improperly configured AI solution could lead to an overreaction by an automated system to perceived threats, which could trigger unwanted actions, like shutting down resources or sending error messages.
The Next Generation of IT Operations
Overall, it's likely that organizations will see some level of benefit from zero-touch operations through automation and AI technology. The human element will once again become the most critical asset in the IT industry. Just as in other industries, Cognitive Operations are poised to redefine what is possible for IT operations personnel.
In the future, all organizations will strive to improve the effectiveness of their operations by either automating or outsourcing them.
The thing to note here is that we are using the term "zero-touch" when describing our automated and outsourced operations. A zero-touch operation is one in which a machine or a person can perform an operation without any interaction between them. An example of this would be an ATM. The machine performs a task automatically, with no human interaction needed. This is the ultimate in automation, and it allows companies to remove themselves from performing certain operations while still ultimately controlling these operations.
This type of strategy can be very effective, but it is important to remember that every single aspect of an organization should not be automated or outsourced. There are things that need to be done by humans, even if they could have been done better by machines.
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"We have found that we need to draw lines around our zero-touch activities so that we don't automate away all human judgment.
It is important for organizations to understand how much value can be added by humans who are involved in their processes, versus how much value can be removed from them by machines.
If you like to learn more about ZeroT.ai
As we mentioned before, the more time you spend with DevOps and cloud automation, the more straightforward it all seems. That's because these are fundamentally new patterns of operation for IT. We have a great cloud platform where we can launch instances in minutes — but what do we do next?
Trying to figure out how to operate in this new environment by applying old methods is a bit like trying to play a computer game on an old-school cartridge system. You might be able to force it to run but you'll be fighting against the system every step of the way.
Trying to manage your infrastructure in a traditional way doesn't work because the speed of change is too great and the pace of business too fast. The only way DevOps makes sense is if you embrace it fully and embrace your systems as they are now, not as you think they should be. In other words, embrace DevOps as an ongoing process that never really ends.
For this reason, it's important to understand what zero-touch operations actually mean. Here are six key steps toward making zero-touch happen:
* If there is no mission or vision, get the decision-makers together and create one.