Just in:
New Nylon Constant Torque Hinge From Southco Provides Position Control In A Compact Package // Sunshine’s Debut Features Leave Tech World Scratching Its Head // French Leaders Gather for Interfaith Iftar Dinner // Ajman Celebrates Conclusion of Ramadan Activities with Grand Ceremony // Andertoons by Mark Anderson for Thu, 28 Mar 2024 // Global Audience to Witness Thrill of Dubai World Cup // U.S. Compliance Takes Center Stage at OKX Following Industry Jitters // 2024 Lok Sabha Elections Will Be The Costliest One Till Now In The Whole World // Following the Money Trail: US and UK Investigate $20 Billion in USDT Transfers Tied to Sanctioned Russian Exchange // Sharjah Chamber Breaks Ground on Final Expansion with New HQ Pact // Emirati Aid Reaches Ukraine as Food Shortages Bite // Emirates Post Speeds Up Deliveries for GCC with Special Day // US reiterates concern over Kejriwal arrest, Cong accounts // TUMI Hosts Global Launch Event in Singapore to Unveil Women’s Asra Collection and Announce Global Ambassador, Mun Ka Young // German Job Market Resilience Bodes Well for Economic Recovery // No running of govt from jail, says Delhi Lt Governor // AIA Hong Kong Wins More Than 20 Accolades at MPF Ratings MPF Awards, BENCHMARK MPF of The Year Awards and Bloomberg Businessweek Top Fund Awards // Ingdan Announces 2023 Annual Results // Konica Minolta is named ASEAN 2023 Market Leader in Colour Light and Mid Digital Production Printers // Hope for Respite as UAE Endorses UN Plea for Gaza Truce //
HomeBiz TechFuture automation in the cloud

Future automation in the cloud

multiplexer blog images770x558px11

It is now well-established that the economics of cloud computing services add massive value to the business, a contention supported both by research and by the number of organisations that either have moved or are now moving production systems into the cloud. Challenges remain of course, and among them is automation.

Cloudy challenges

ADVERTISEMENT

Cloud certainly changes the economics of IT but it does not necessarily change all the essential nuts and bolts. Systems still need to watched in case they approach their limits, failed hardware needs to be replaced, and applications will still crash or need rebooting. Additionally, of course, the various interfaces between enterprise premises and those of the cloud service provider also need to be configured and managed. There’s a host of other tasks too, and many are likely right now to be performed by carefully crafted scripts, each of which needs to be amended when things change, as they do.

All these are essential operations but today’s business pressures mean that a faster time to market, fewer human errors, and simplified development and deployment of applications and other resources are driving businesses towards automating as many of these tasks as possible. Research firm IDC reported that the market for datacentre automation software grew by 13.7 percent in 2015[1], and is expected to be worth $5.7 billion in 2019[2].

Cloud to the rescue?

So while there can be joy in crafting the perfect complex script, it is not cost-effective for the business to tie up too many of its human resources in this manner, especially when cloud service providers can help by automating many tasks.

Not all cloud providers offer automation as a feature of their cloud services but it is a feature you should be looking for. As an example, the ability to spin up a VM and make a log entry to that effect is one task, while other task bundles or tools may be more complex and nest a range of other tasks, such as truncating a database. Instead of manually connecting to the server, then to the database, checking the size of the database, comparing against the maximum threshold, performing a truncation, and then notifying the user, you might provide essential details such as the names of the server and database and the notification email address, and launch automated tools to do the work.

The cloud provider’s tools may not provide a complete solution, of course. While there may be a good deal of overlap, each organisation will have its own processes and expected outcomes, so automated tasks will need to be customised. To help with this, there is likely to be a community around most cloud providers of any size, and help can often be found for practical issues, such as developing your own scripts or customising scripts from other users, as well as tweaks and workarounds.

Business benefits

Given the right automation tools, it is now possible for a single datacentre admin to control and manage hundreds of physical servers (and thousands of VMs), each of them responding in seconds to changes in demand, as a consequence of deploying automated tools to reduce IT’s management overhead.

This kind of unified management and automation approach in today’s heterogeneous environments means your business will enjoy lower costs, greater flexibility and agility, improved visibility into virtual assets, and fewer ‘finger-trouble’ errors.

And in the future? Surely the entirely robotic datacentre – a true lights-out environment – cannot be far away.

[1] IDC: Worldwide Datacenter Automation Software Market Shares, 2015

[2] IDC: Worldwide Workload Scheduling and Automation Software Forecast Update, 2015-2019

(via PCMag)

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT
Just in:
Arvind Kejriwal Was Used By BJP In 2011 Movement To Take On The Congress // CABSAT 2024 Ushers in 30 Years of Media Innovation // Experience Ultimate Shopping Freedom at 4.4 Shopee Spree: Don’t Worry, Shop Shopee! // TUMI Hosts Global Launch Event in Singapore to Unveil Women’s Asra Collection and Announce Global Ambassador, Mun Ka Young // Melco Style Presents “SANRIO CHARACTERS STUDIO CITY CARNIVAL” – Explore a SANRIO World of Unlimited Love and Cuteness // Andertoons by Mark Anderson for Thu, 28 Mar 2024 // Universal Language for Healthcare: General Authority Embraces Global Coding System // Sharjah Chamber Breaks Ground on Final Expansion with New HQ Pact // Following the Money Trail: US and UK Investigate $20 Billion in USDT Transfers Tied to Sanctioned Russian Exchange // First-Ever Fortune Innovation Forum Draws Top Global Leaders to Hong Kong, Promoting Agendas On Collective Cross-Sector Advancement // New Nylon Constant Torque Hinge From Southco Provides Position Control In A Compact Package // Ajman Celebrates Conclusion of Ramadan Activities with Grand Ceremony // Sharpening the Focus: Sharjah Health Department Refines Evaluation Criteria for “Healthy Schools Programme” // Hope for Respite as UAE Endorses UN Plea for Gaza Truce // Lisboeta Macau’s world first LINE FRIENDS PRESENTS CASA DE AMIGO and BROWN & FRIENDS CAFE & BISTRO has officially opened // French Leaders Gather for Interfaith Iftar Dinner // Emirates Post Speeds Up Deliveries for GCC with Special Day // Sunshine’s Debut Features Leave Tech World Scratching Its Head // AIA Hong Kong Wins More Than 20 Accolades at MPF Ratings MPF Awards, BENCHMARK MPF of The Year Awards and Bloomberg Businessweek Top Fund Awards // Konica Minolta is named ASEAN 2023 Market Leader in Colour Light and Mid Digital Production Printers //