Infrastructure automation encompasses the various stages in the process of scripting environments, right from the installation of operating systems, to configuring how different software communicate with one another. The same configuration can be applied to either a single node or to several nodes through scripting environments. 

A growing list of terms such as configuration management, provisioning, scripted infrastructures, and system configuration management, are essentially variations of Infrastructure Automation, which brings together many aspects of IT management under one umbrella. Boiled down to its essence, the process recognizes your infrastructure and its configuration as a script or series of scripts so that the environments can be replicated in an effective, simplified, and error-free manner.

Infrastructure automation introduces a high level of agility to development and operations segments – today, an authorized team member can modify scripts while applying efficient development processes such as automated testing and versioning to your infrastructure. DevOps greatly benefits from the application of infrastructure automation.  

Do Enterprises Really Require Infrastructure Automation?

The simple answer is, yes!

Infrastructure is held together by a set of predictable, standardized, and recurring tasks that can prove to be costly for your enterprise if not done right. In earlier days, infrastructure consisted of less-sophisticated configurations facilitated by bare metal servers. Even the slightest variation or change would have to be implemented manually in hardware configuration on a case-to-case basis. This would often involve an excessive amount of time, effort, and money. 

Infrastructure automation effectively replaces manual processes, drastically reducing the time taken for deploying thousands of servers while eliminating errors in configuration. It allows you to build and use test environments that are exact replicas of ones that are in place, while maintaining a high level of consistency.  

Improved Management of Cloud-Based Infrastructure

Managing servers and scripts through manual processes in cloud-based environments, and at cloud scales, is simply not feasible. Automation helps you adapt quickly and efficiently to diverse infrastructures on the cloud. It enables the easy deployment of servers with practices such as IaC (Infrastructure as Code), new applications, and updates dependencies to multitudes of servers, even adding additional servers in order to provide improved load balancing.

With infrastructure automation, it is possible to achieve a high degree of uniformity and consistency when setting up infrastructures. It also involves orchestrating changes across environments seamlessly and effectively, whether in bulk or small portions. This eases the task load on developers while empowering them with the enhanced efficiency of managing cloud-based infrastructure through automated processes. Your developers can then focus on their core areas, designing and crafting high-quality software.   

CloudNow empowers your enterprise with the complete implementation of infrastructure automation, transforming your business in the process. Our role is to understand cloud infrastructure requirements in the specific context of your business; we leverage automation tools for improved management of your cloud infrastructure and enhanced transparency. The end results are greater collaboration and cross-functionality of your teams.

To know more, get in touch with us today!