This paper highlights how Run Book Automation Software provides the new level of automation required to automate IT operations and traditional job scheduling tasks, without the costs and management burden associated with custom programming and scripts.
"RBA [Run Book Automation] tools will have a big impact on end-to-end automation and running IT operations as a business and providing consistent, better quality services at optimal cost." David William, Gartner
RUN BOOK AUTOMATION: JOB SCHEDULING FOR IT OPERATIONS
"IT managers have got IT organizations are under increasing pressure to ensure high service levels and to reduce the day-to-day infrastructure efficiency, while lowering costs and adhering to best practices. As such, decisions that software efforts to integrate systems and automate processes have become two key goals of IT could automate. and it professionals. To achieve these objectives means improving the level of automation needs to include human within production and operations environments. processes, workflow and business priorities By increasing the levels of automation and eliminating common repetitive tasks, mapped into IT companies can reduce operational costs as well as reduce the amount of staff needed components" to manage the system(s) and reallocate highly skilled personnel to strategic projects. Deb Curtis, Gartner Automation provides the ability to have the system do more work in the same amount of time. Although the benefits of automation meets business objectives of reducing costs, increasing productivity and maximizing efficiency, the number one concern of IT managers is integration. Run Book Automation Defined
The way we do business today is altering the level of automation and integration required within IT operations. Traditional automation methods, namely job schedulers, run and monitor batch jobs. Although job scheduling comprises an important function in a production-computing environment, it is not well suited to automate operational processes or run book procedures, as they provide little to no integration with surrounding systems. Run Book Automation (RBA), a relatively new market, provides the orchestration, integration and automation of operational processes across multiple data, departmental, and application silos. This is done through IT-defined workflow that integrates the people, process and technologies involved in operational procedures. Due to the recent recognition of this market, some companies have attempted to accomplish the equivalent of what is now known as RBA, by running lengthy scripts with a job scheduler, but this technique is costly, unreliable, and error prone. While scripts and schedulers work well for small tasks, they rarely scale to handle complex environments. They also lack sophisticated dependencies and reporting that allow users to keep audit trails of processes. As process requirements grow, and more functionality is added, the result is a complex mix of scripts, programs, and utilities that only a few people actually understand. More concerning is that home-grown scripts can quickly turn into a full-time programming commitment as well as a time-consuming and costly management burden.
Run Book Automation: Job Scheduling for IT Operations Page 2 of 5
"Opalis' unique value- Using Run Book Automation Software for Job Scheduling Tasks add is its ability to Run Book Automation solutions include many of the features and capabilities users rapidly integrate and require in a job scheduler, while also providing more advanced functions. Run Book streamline IT operations Automation software can automate any administrative, maintenance or business workflows without the processes, such as restarting services, rotating logs, backing up data, deleting need for programming temporary files, and e-mailing files. It can also run several jobs on multiple machines, or scripts." modify accounts, query databases, upload data and filter/read/send e-mail. Mary Turner, Summit Strategies In addition to standard enterprise requirements like load balancing, failover, failure routines, error handling, and logging, Run Book Automation Software also provides integration, orchestration, and workflow. Integration
Integration is a key component in Run Book Automation software, as it provides the ability to query, modify, collect, parse... [download for more]
