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Overview: Enterprises in recent years have drastically cut cost of IT infrastructure management through automation. There are a plenty of approaches, tools and technologies available in the market for automation. However the quantum of business value derived from IT infrastructure operations automation, in our experience of working with leading organizations, is closely linked to careful consideration of following essentials. Organizations should take into account not just immediate benefits from IT infrastructure automation but also on-going cost reductions that automation can bring in. 1. Business alignment of IT: Automation solutions need to go beyond simple reduction in efforts to enabling stronger alignment to business. IT operational analytics built into the solution can provide predictive capabilities for infrastructure operations management – from ability to alert unusual operational metrics for corrective action to auto resource scale up and down based on monitored operational parameters. Key is to have a clear identification of areas where automation should bring in predictive capabilities before embarking on the automation journey. 2. Simplification of IT operations for end-users: With ever increasing complexity of IT infrastructure, it’s imperative that automation solutions enable simplification of IT operations landscape. A simplified IT operation can deliver improved efficiency, increased productivity, shorter cycle times, process & audit compliance and improved customer service and satisfaction. Self-service portal, as part of automation solution, that abstracts and hides the complexity, can enable not only immediate gains but also enable more successful adoption of future cost reduction options like remote infrastructure management(RIM). 3. People to platform centric approach: Automation that incorporate a platform centric approach helps deliver substantially more benefits as compared to a tools and people centric approach. It should be realized that there is a tremendous amount of knowledge and best practices residing with people. Organizations can realize substantial agility in responding to changes and avoid vendor lock-ins by adopting a platform centric approach. An automation platform has huge potential of avoiding future costs by embedding the knowledge and best practices in the platform. 4. Change management and communication: Depending on the scale and scope of IT infrastructure automation, an automation project is usually associated with massive amounts of change management and communication. Automation solution being adopted should enable appropriate communication and change management through various techniques like built-in knowledge base, simplifying IT operations management and being self- service and easy to use. Essentials for IT infrastructure automation and ongoing cost reduction
