Process Automation: Moving Beyond Scripts in Operations Management

OPALIS WHITE PAPER

"IT has done a terrific job of automating processes around developing software, but the opposite is true when it comes down to automaton in operations and production environments." Jean-Pierre Garbani, Forrester Research Network World Executive Guide: The New Data Center
PROCESS AUTOMATION, MOVING BEYOND SCRIPTS IN OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

With increasing pressure to keep costs down, to be updated if the monitoring tool or helpdesk is improve performance and service delivery, IT upgraded. departments are looking for solutions that automate operational processes, standardize best practices and improve efficiency. Scripts Are a Management Burden Operational environments are under constant In the beginning. there was only scripting change, new systems are added, old systems are upgraded and staff responsibilities change. Every Traditionally, scripting and custom time a change like this occurs new scripts have to programming were the only real method to be developed and existing scripts have to be automate tasks. In fact, even system modified with new business logic. Change can management products like backup, event also add unplanned downtime and costs as monitoring and helpdesk tools ship scripts experts or consultants have to be called back in which are meant to be customized to automate to write or fix scripts. Further, every change to a peripheral tasks. Naturally IT tries, with limited script can create cascading problems that are not success, to use these methods to automate understood by anybody but the person who operational processes such as incident and originally wrote them. Unfortunately, the reality in problem management procedures. However many script-based shops is that the amount of they quickly recognize that although scripting is effort required to manage the change often sufficient for simple tasks, it is not well suited to prevents improvements from happening at all. automate processes that involve multiple products, in an environment that has frequent changes to both infrastructure and business "Opalis' unique value-add is its processes. ability to rapidly integrate and Scripts Require Programming Expertise streamline IT operations workflows without the need for programming or The problems IT encounters when using scripts." scripting to automate operational tasks varies based on the complexity of the process and the Mary Turner, Summit Strategies availability of programming experts. Most operations teams have limited access to development resources, when they do, IT Managers prefer to have developers working Scripts Are Not Designed for Process on strategic projects that add value to the Automation business instead of maintaining infrastructure components. A process is a set of individual tasks that are coordinated into a logical sequence of events, Scripts Lack Agility & Flexibility usually involving multiple tools, applications, and data sources. With the constraint and fragility Most scripts that are packaged in management scripts introduce to simple tasks, it doesn't take tools tend to be task-specific and are not very much imagination to predict the results of using adaptable. For example, a script that filters scripts to automate a process. Automating a critical events and creates a trouble ticket will process with necessary decision-making, have highly specialized (and often proprietary) dependencies, and business logic using scripts is code pertaining to the products involved. That the equivalent to programming an entire script cannot be used for a different type of application. In the end, IT Managers do not want vendor or event type; in fact the script usually has operations staff maintaining home-grown applications.
Process Automation; Moving beyond Scripts in Operations Management Page 2 of 3 Copyright (c) Opalis Software, Inc. 2006.
Requirements for Automating Operational Opalis Benefits Processes Opalis automates repetitive, manual processes A good automation tool must provide an easy into IT Best Practices, enabling companies to way to automate processes, coordinate tasks, increase performance and availability, reduce and move data between systems. It must also operating costs, and provider greater service provide the flexibility and agility required to levels. support a constantly changing environment, where operations staff are able to design, implement... [download for more]