Modern IT Infrastructure: Automation & Orchestration Tools

Automation and orchestration tools represent one of the primary trends driving modern IT infrastructure activity, advancement, and adoption. Facilitating seamless integration and management of complex, dynamic environments, these tools automate repetitive tasks, streamline workflows, and ensure that IT processes are executed consistently and efficiently. By leveraging automation, organizations can reduce manual intervention, minimize errors, and improve operational efficiency. Orchestration, on the other hand, coordinates automated tasks across diverse systems, ensuring they work together harmoniously to achieve desired outcomes. Together, these tools make it possible for IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives without getting bogged down by routine operational tasks.

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How Automation & Orchestration Tools Support Modern IT Infrastructure  

Automation and orchestration tools offer numerous benefits to organizations implementing and operating modern IT infrastructure. They can bolster security and compliance by automating security measures and ensuring continuous adherence to industry regulations, reducing enterprise risks and vulnerabilities. They can also improve scalability and reliability by dynamically adjusting resources based on demand and needs and provide greater efficiencies across operations and resources.  

• Enhanced Security and Compliance: Automation and orchestration tools help organizations maintain robust security and compliance postures by automating security measures and ensuring consistent policy enforcement. They can continuously scan systems for vulnerabilities and apply patches without waiting for manual intervention, reducing exposure to potential threats. By ensuring continuous compliance with industry regulations, enterprises can mitigate risks and avoid costly penalties, enhancing overall security posture.
• Improved Scalability and Reliability: These tools also allow enterprises to dynamically scale resources up or down based on demand, ensuring optimal use of IT infrastructure while maintaining consistent and reliable operations. This ability to adjust for varying workloads can be crucial during peak business periods or promotional events. Additionally, automation and orchestration ensure that IT processes are executed consistently, reducing the likelihood of human error and maintaining reliable and stable IT operations.
• Operational Efficiency Optimization: Automation and orchestration tools significantly enhance operational efficiency by automating routine and repetitive tasks. By reducing the manual time and effort required for tasks such as system updates, backups, and configurations, resources can be allocated to more value-driven work. As a result, IT teams can focus more on innovation and problem-solving, driving greater business growth, efficiency, and productivity.

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What Technology Practitioners Are Saying 

A recent poll of Technology Practitioner Council (TPC) members revealed that 47% are underinvested in automation and orchestration tools, which represent the most significant and widespread infrastructure stack gap. Notably and concurrently, more than two-thirds of TPC members also indicated that the security infrastructure segment of the modern infrastructure is the biggest priority moving forward, driven in part by the rapidly expanding risk surface and growing sophistication of AI-enabled attacks and threats. The prioritization of integration complexity and legacy system compatibility within identity and access management practices, aligns with two of the top three identity and access management cybersecurity challenges cited by TPC members. Thus, automation and orchestration tools have emerged as an increasingly important solution to effectively navigating the evolving and complex threat landscape of modern IT infrastructure.  

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Automation and orchestration tools also play an essential role in the data and AI segments of modern IT infrastructure. Their ability to ensure end-to-end security, cleaning, and quality control across the entire data lifecycle speaks directly to the need of technology practitioners, 80% of whom told us that Quality & Accuracy and Security & Privacy are their two largest AI data preparedness challenges. Further, automation and orchestration solutions are foundational components within scalable data governance models and standardized collection and management, two of the most impactful strategies for improving data quality according to Vation Venture’s TPC community. As enterprises and operations become increasingly data-dependent and AI technological adoption continues to accelerate, data automation and orchestration will serve as the backbone of effective data intelligence and management, as well as AI value realization.  

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What’s more, enterprises are currently prioritizing customer acquisition, engagement, and retention to secure growth and market differentiation in a highly competitive and resource-constrained business environment. Digital experiences are crucial in this context, which is reflected in the fact that more than half of TPC members cited speed and performance, personalization, and reliability and stability as key drivers of customer satisfaction. Automation and orchestration tools play a vital role in enhancing these drivers by ensuring the seamless, efficient, and consistent performance of IT infrastructure. By optimizing these tools, businesses can deliver fast, personalized, and reliable digital experiences that attract and retain customers, ultimately driving greater customer growth, monetization and competitive differentiation.

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Best Practices for Automation & Orchestration Tools

Vation Ventures advises enterprises to strategically map their IT infrastructure to effectively adopt and integrate automation and orchestration solutions, ensuring seamless integration and scalability. By identifying key challenges and cost drivers, businesses can align these tools with specific needs, optimizing resource utilization and reducing costs. Additionally, prioritizing comprehensive security and compliance automation enhances risk mitigation, policy enforcement and regulatory compliance, strengthening overall security posture.

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Systematically Map Current and Future IT Infrastructure States

Enterprises should systematically map their current and future IT infrastructure states to ensure the most effective and efficient adoption and integration of automation and orchestration solutions. This involves assessing existing infrastructure, identifying gaps, and projecting future needs based on business goals and technological advancements. Organizations can strategically implement automation and orchestration tools that align with long-term objectives by understanding the current landscape and future requirements. This approach ensures seamless integration, maximizes the benefits of these tools, and supports scalable and adaptable IT environments.

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Identify Key IT Infrastructure Challenges and Cost Drivers

Identifying key IT infrastructure challenges and cost drivers is crucial for maximizing the impact of automation and orchestration tools. Enterprises should conduct thorough assessments to pinpoint operational bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and high-cost areas within their IT infrastructure. Automation and orchestration solutions can then be mapped to these challenges, leading to an evaluation of their technological and operational impacts and the potential return on investment. By aligning solutions with specific challenges and cost drivers, businesses can optimize resource utilization, reduce operational costs, and enhance overall IT performance.

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Implement Comprehensive Security and Compliance Automation  

To maximize benefits and align automation and orchestration tools with enterprise priorities, comprehensive security- and compliance-oriented solutions should be prioritized. By prioritizing automation and orchestration tools for regular security scans, vulnerability assessments and patch management, enterprises can address immediate risks and constraints to ensure systems are continuously protected against emerging threats. By automating these processes, organizations can reduce the risk of human error, maintain consistent enforcement of security policies and ensure compliance with industry regulations. This proactive approach helps organizations mitigate risks, avoid costly penalties and enhance the overall security posture of the IT infrastructure.

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Conclusion

Automation and orchestration tools are essential to enhancing operational efficiency, scalability and security in modern IT infrastructure. These tools streamline workflows by automating repetitive tasks and dynamically coordinating and optimizing complex technological processes, allowing IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives and ensuring scalability and reliability. They also play a crucial role in improving security and compliance by automating regular scans and patch management, reducing risks and ensuring regulatory adherence. As infrastructure technology evolves, these tools will become increasingly vital for managing dynamic environments, optimizing resource use and supporting data and AI initiatives.

Looking to the future, the growing complexity and resource intensity of emerging technology workflows will make automation and orchestration tools even more critical. As businesses increasingly adopt advanced technologies like AI, IoT, and edge computing, the need for seamless integration and efficient management of these diverse systems will intensify. Additionally, the expanding attack and risk surface, driven by more interconnected devices and sophisticated cyber threats, will necessitate robust automation to maintain security and compliance. Enterprises must also consider the scalability of their automation and orchestration solutions to handle the increasing volume and variety of data, ensuring they remain agile and resilient in an ever-evolving digital landscape.

Our Technology Practitioner Council brings together directors and managers in technology focused on specific sectors, including Modern Infrastructure. The Council meets quarterly to discover emerging technologies in the space and hear exclusive trends from our Research team. Interested in joining this esteemed group? Get in touch today.