Companies looking to boost operational efficiency, reduce human errors, and ensure consistency in operations should opt for IT automation.
This is because, with digital transformation, it’s essential for automation to be implemented in companies to make IT environments more dynamic and capable of successfully scaling operations.
Additionally, IT automation is useful for replacing time-consuming tasks and allowing the IT team to keep up with the growing scale and complexity of IT operations and cloud infrastructure.
It also enables teams to operate more efficiently in a scenario where it’s not uncommon to need to configure and deploy thousands of servers, for example.
Furthermore, a study by Gartner showed that hyperautomation will lead to a 30% reduction in operational costs for companies by the end of 2024.
Recent trends in IT automation include the use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence to create smarter processes that handle more unpredictable situations.
So, if you want to know what IT automation is, its benefits, and the main IT automation tools, just keep reading the article.
What is IT automation?
IT automation is the use of tools, software, and systems to perform tasks and processes in an automated manner, without the need for human intervention. IT automation encompasses various activities, such as configuration management, implementation of updates, workflow orchestration, and more.
Automation scripts can increase productivity, efficiency, reduce errors, speed up processes, and improve consistency in operations. This way, IT teams can optimize their time and focus on more complex and strategic activities for the business.
With the increase in virtual networks and cloud services that require fast and complex provisioning, automation is an indispensable strategy to help IT teams deliver services with speed, consistency, and security.
Examples of IT automation
IT automations can perform a variety of IT tasks and processes, from simple to complex. For example, automation can be used to create network or security models and blueprints, and to configure applications and provision production-ready infrastructure.
There are many potential applications of IT automation, but some of the most common ones include:
- Cloud automation;
- Resource provisioning;
- Configuration;
- Network management;
- Security automation (such as monitoring and response).
What are the benefits of IT automation?
Thanks to automation, IT environments can scale more rapidly with fewer errors and are more responsive to business needs. A fully automated environment can reduce delivery time to production from weeks to less than a day.
Check out some of the advantages of IT automation below:
Orchestration
Process orchestration is one of the major advantages of IT automation, as it provides efficient coordination for executing complex workflows. Typically, IT systems are complex, consisting of virtual machines and containers, for example, and to automate and manage all components, a RPA software with orchestration is required.
Thus, the integration between different systems, applications, and IT tools is facilitated, allowing the creation of cohesive workflows and communication between different infrastructures.
Additionally, process orchestration allows for dynamic scaling, essential to ensure consistent performance. Orchestration also provides monitoring and management of automated processes in a centralized point, making it easier to identify issues, generate reports, and track progress.
Security and Compliance
IT automation strengthens a company’s definition and implementation of security and compliance policies. With automated security workflows and processes, audits are facilitated, and the entire IT infrastructure operates in compliance without major obstacles.
Security practices are enhanced with automation of tasks such as event monitoring, log analysis, and response to security incidents, for example. Additionally, implementing access control measures is essential so that only authorized users have permission to access automated processes.
Another important point is data encryption, which is crucial when dealing with sensitive data, thus protecting information during transmission and storage.
Error Reduction
With IT automation, your company can optimize repetitive tasks on a large scale, reducing the time to completion and costs related to human errors. This is because using robots to perform processes requires fewer work hours to complete tasks, increasing productivity and delivery accuracy.
Furthermore, automation frees up the IT team to perform complex tasks with higher added value, thus bringing more long-term financial return to the company.
Cost Reduction
By adopting IT automation in a business, it is possible to save money, reduce operating costs, and also structure an effective approach to managing IT resources and processes.
Firstly, when choosing an automation software, it is necessary to consider the return on investment (ROI) that can be provided, it is essential to evaluate the initial cost and long-term maintenance expenses.
Provisioning Optimization
Based on your company’s automation templates, it is possible to automate provisioning, i.e., the configuration processes of the entire IT infrastructure.
In this sense, if your company uses a virtual machine and receives numerous customer requests, but at some point, this volume experiences significant growth, more computational power will be needed to process the inputs.
Therefore, through automation – using performance and memory metrics, for example – it is possible for an entire machine infrastructure to be created based on automation templates.
List of IT Automation Tools
Choosing a suitable IT automation tool is important for the success of IT automation in your company. It is important to consider the platform’s limitations (low-code or open source), processing capacity, and, of course, your budget. Check out some options below:
Selenium
Selenium is an open-source automation tool primarily used for web automation. With its set of frameworks, it’s possible to automate various administrative tasks that would typically be performed by an employee.
Additionally, it allows the use of various programming languages such as Python, Java, and C#.
It also enables the simulation of real interactions and the execution of automated tests for web interfaces.
It features a set of tools with various environments, such as Selenium IDE, which records and replays interactions with the browser, executing test replay scripts to automate processes.
BotCity
BotCity is an RPA automation software focused on Python RPA automations. It stands out for its flexibility, as it allows unlimited customization of automations and up to 80% cost savings compared to low-code platforms, as it does not have license lock-ins.
Moreover, automations with BotCity are lighter and up to 15 times faster than low-code automations, making the platform excellent for companies with complex processes.
BotCity features an orchestrator that facilitates the governance of RPA operations, capable of managing deployments (virtual machines, containers, serverless, legacy systems), distributing bot processing, monitoring logs, operating in parallel processing, controlling queues, and much more.
Learn more: 10 RPA course options
Appium
An open-source tool, Appium is used for test automation for mobile, web, and hybrid applications. It offers cross-platform automation, meaning the same code base can be used to automate applications on both iOS and Android devices.
It provides flexibility to developers as it supports various programming languages such as JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and C#. The tool can also be integrated with test frameworks like JUnit, NUnit, and TestNG.
UiPath
UiPath is a robotic process automation (RPA) platform that offers tools to automate routine business processes using software robots. Tasks such as form filling, document processing, and data entry, for example, can be automated in the tool.
The tool stands out for its user-friendly interface that enables automation development without the need for extensive coding, making it feasible for users with limited programming skills, such as citizen developers.
Additionally, the platform is designed to seamlessly integrate with a variety of existing systems, allowing process automation across different technologies.
Does your company need a tool for IT automation?
The process of choosing the IT automation tool for your company should take into consideration factors such as performance, cost, orchestration, integration capability, scalability, and security.
If your company is looking for a solution that offers great performance, flexibility, and scalability, BotCity is the right choice. Additionally, the tool offers an advanced orchestrator that allows the creation of custom workflows using the Python programming language.
So, schedule a conversation with one of our specialists or try BotCity on your own right now, just by creating a free account!
