Cloud automation and orchestration are the bedrock of the success organizations have achieved in the age of cloud computing. Virtualized environments have made it possible for enterprises to save on software and hardware costs. But by themselves, these environments cannot deliver the critical benefits of the cloud. Automation and orchestration enable organizations to enjoy agility, scalability, reduced administrative and labor costs, faster time to market, etc.
What Is Cloud Automation and Cloud Orchestration?
Cloud automation and cloud orchestration are closely related, but they’re also very different. Cloud automation is responsible for automating tasks in the cloud. Cloud orchestration is responsible for automating workflows or processes.
Cloud automation automates tasks, such as deploying an application or provisioning a server. As a result, it helps to reduce the amount of time taken to roll out services. Cloud orchestration, in contrast, enables IT to merge a group of automated tasks to create a series of coordinated workflows. This helps organizations to deliver services securely, efficiently, and quickly.
Benefits of Cloud Automation and Orchestration
Here are some of the benefits of automation and orchestration:
Allows IT to Focus on Valuable Projects
Automation can speed up repetitive tasks, such as installing and configuring applications and operating systems, storage allocation, and server provisioning. Orchestration makes it easier to manage the complex, disparate workflows and systems that characterize the cloud.
These two drastically reduce manual intervention and the time it takes to get things done. Therefore, organizations reduce their administrator-to-server ratio. They can redistribute resources to more valuable tasks and projects.
Time to Market
Cloud automation and orchestration tools come with self-service portals. These portals allow users to select from a catalog of standard offerings of cloud services and resources. Organizations can provision their resources within the defined limits.
This creates an environment of efficiency and innovation for DevOps teams. It also makes it easier for end-users to access and accomplish their tasks. The ripple effect positively affects the entire organization, with delivery speeds of services and products increasing markedly.
Enhance Business Agility
The enterprise needs to be agile to help handle sudden surges in demand for computing. For example, demand for your organization’s services and products may spike during the holidays. There’s a need for IT infrastructure to scale up and down fast to accommodate the changing demands. Organizations can only achieve agility through automation and orchestration.
Efficient Utility of Resources
Self-service capabilities and rapid provisioning of the cloud consume network, storage, and compute resources more quickly. Orchestration allows organizations to perform intelligent workload management, so they use resources more efficiently. This saves your organization both time and money.
Automates Compliance and Promotes Security
It is IT’s responsibility to secure IT assets. This is a particularly critical role with the rising threat of cyberattacks and regulatory compliance demands. It’s even harder for IT departments when they have to secure each deployed application and server.
Cloud automation and orchestration helps organizations to create policy templates for service deployments. IT can have security and corporate policies embedded into these templates to ensure they control risks and meet each deployment’s compliance requirements.
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