Managing IT systems and infrastructures is complex. There are lots of moving parts and plenty that can go wrong. The recent CBA digital outage is a glaring example.
Often it's not the big things that catch the CBAs of this world out, but the little things. All it takes is a small IT task to be missed or performed out of sequence. It doesn’t take much.
So how does automation help?
Automation guarantees a consistent approach to repetitive IT tasks. Automated IT tasks complete the same way every time. Tasks are never missed or performed out of sequence, and human error is eliminated.
When two or more IT team members are tasked with completing the same IT activity, the outcomes will often differ — the more complex the task, the greater the difference.
This is particularly true for repetitive but infrequent activities. Even if the same person completes the activity, chances are it is likely to be done differently, resulting in different outcomes.
IT activities that involve multiple tasks are subject to human error.
Consider the deployment of cloud infrastructure.
It's not unusual to have 60+ manual steps that need to be undertaken. The potential for human error is significant, and the likelihood of a step being missed or completed out of sequence is high. Every step and each checkpoint must be verified along the way, and when completed, the whole process must be revalidated to ensure the set of tasks is complete.
Automating the process eliminates almost all manual steps, misses nothing, and ensures a consistent deployment every time.
Ensuring a consistent approach to repetitive IT tasks is important to maintaining system stability. In an environment of skill shortages and time pressures, automation will provide a level of consistency otherwise not attainable. Tasks will complete on time, in sequence, and as expected.
To learn more about IT automation for SAP teams, see www.legupsoftware.com/solutions