IT Automation as a basis for optimizing IT infrastructure

Oct. 9, 2012 - PRLog -- IT automation can help businesses to reduce costs and improve the quality of service. AmdoSoft's solution "b4" offers a wide range of features for automating IT operations. A perfect starting point for IT system automation is a straightforward, highly repetitive process such as user rights management.

Large parts of industrial production are automated nowadays, but this is not always the case for IT operations. These are still frequently performed manually by system administrators, sometimes with the help of some out of the box automation. Most companies do have a "IT Infrastructure Library" (ITIL) set up, which is used to generate descriptions and documentation pertaining to specific processes. However, these documents are often only partially representative of the procedure as many of the steps are implemented in an undocumented administrator’s script, and are not clear to all affected members of the IT team.

Problems can arise, therefore, when new employees are to be given access to certain databases and programmes. Despite the existence of efficient standardisation and automation solutions such as AmdoSoft "b4," IT departments often carry out the allocation and management of rights manually. The use of such software can reduce the time taken to create new users or process authorisation changes from a full day to less than an hour.

Businesses wishing to introduce IT automation are required to develop precisely defined standards, in order to clarify who may use what application and the access rights of the user. For the first-time IT automation user, simple, repetitive processes such as the creation of user accounts and the resetting of passwords are an ideal place to start. The next step is the implementation of solutions tailor-made for the company.

The use of IT automation is increasingly being influenced by cloud computing. Advantages of cloud services include an all-round reduction of costs, more flexibility and better system scalability. Additionally, they provide access to the most recent versions of applications.
Businesses should not, however, underestimate the effort involved in cloud-based IT infrastructures. If the infrastructure and business-critical applications are not automated, IT administrators must intervene more often and make more corrections. Experts believe IT automation also to be fundamental to the successful use in cloud-based infrastructures.