How to Save Time with Cloud Automation Tools

Paul Korzeniowski · Mar 12, 2024 · 6 minute read

Drowning in infrastructure complexities? Feeling like a glorified button-pusher? You’re not alone. Today’s sprawling tech stacks are devouring developer time with tedious maintenance tasks. The majority of working hours may often be spent managing and maintaining infrastructure, hindering the core focus on application development and innovation. 

Coordinating and managing all of the different pieces of software is a complex, often onerous task, especially when one knows that a misstep or two can leave a corporation open to intrusion from hackers.

So, it is not surprising that many corporate IT departments feel overwhelmed. They’re constantly under pressure to add new features and capabilities to a complex system of applications and infrastructure, all while avoiding any mistakes that could disrupt the entire business.

Here’s some good news: artificial intelligence (AI) automation tools can save your staff hours of repetitive work. These tools can significantly reduce the burden of routine infrastructure management tasks, freeing up significant blocks of time for developers.

How AI Solutions Are Transforming System Administration

Gone are the days when a software update meant weeks of planning, crossed fingers, and a collective sigh of relief at the end. There are some new and powerful generative AI solutions on the market that solve many of these issues. They can take large volumes of information, collect and correlate it, provide individuals with new insights into their infrastructure performance, and even automatically address potential emerging problems.

One subset of that work, AIOps (artificial intelligence for IT operations) automates system administration tasks. This AI-driven tool can automate repetitive tasks like system monitoring, security updates, and even data backups. 

The technology has been finding a wide and growing range of use cases, starting on the application development front end and continuing through to backend backup and recovery. Corporate interest in these solutions is high. AIOps vendors are expected to generate $27.24 billion in 2024.

Software Testing

Tech teams know the drill for software updates: testing, testing, and more testing. It’s a crucial process to ensure a new feature doesn’t unleash a gremlin that throws your system into chaos. But manually creating and running all those tests can be a time-consuming and error-prone task.

Thankfully, the tech world is constantly evolving. An AI-powered tool can now act as your super-efficient testing assistant, automatically generating regression, unit, and integration tests and analyzing the mountains of data generated by these tests to draw conclusions about the software’s quality and reliability. This means faster deployments with minimized risk. These include tools like Jenkins and Ansible, augmenting your IT department’s capabilities and providing deeper insights into your software’s health.

The outcome? Faster development cycles and fewer bugs, with fewer hours spent by developers and IT managers. 

From Complex Configurations to Cloud-Based Convenience

Setting up new software used to mean manually configuring every aspect of its infrastructure, from the network layer all the way up. It was a time-consuming process, like building a complex Lego castle piece by piece. 

Now, creating new resources is smooth and frictionless. A business line manager can spin up a new server environment with a few taps on a cell phone. Automated tools in the cloud take up the reins, instantly deploying the necessary resources based on the user’s request. This prevents delays and speeds up time to market. 

System Utilization

Imagine having a digital guardian angel constantly watching over your computer system. That’s what automated monitoring tools like Zabbix, Up-Time Kuma, and Prometheus do. These clever tools continuously analyze performance and resource usage, to identify potential bottlenecks before they become problems. If the tools identify an issue, they automatically trigger alerts and notifications, letting you know it’s time to take action. 

By using automated monitoring tools, you can shift from reactive firefighting to proactive system maintenance, preventing delays and speeding up your processes.

Security Solutions

Traditional ad hoc security methods often lack efficiency and scalability. Legacy security systems rely on continuous monitoring, generating massive amounts of data. Analyzing this data manually to identify potential threats was a time-consuming and error-prone process.

Automated security tools are transforming the way companies approach threat detection and response. These tools offer enhanced efficiency and accuracy. Tools like UTunnel VPN, OpenVPN, pfSense, Fortigate, and Passbolt perform regular scans and vulnerability assessments, identifying potential weaknesses in the system infrastructure. Instead of sifting through mountains of data, these tools utilize advanced algorithms to pinpoint suspicious activities.

User Account Management

Managing user accounts and permissions can be a significant challenge for IT teams, especially in dynamic environments with frequent employee turnover and evolving applications. Traditionally, this involved manual processes for creating, modifying, and deactivating user accounts. 

Automation has revolutionized user provisioning and permission management, enabling IT teams to streamline account creation, enforce consistent policies, and reduce human error. These changes result in enhanced compliance and improved security for the entire company, with less staff time required. 

Log Management

System logs, detailed records of every system interaction, offer invaluable insights into system health. However, the sheer volume of data makes manual analysis a daunting task.

AIOps solutions can help here, too. They don’t just collect data, they continuously analyze logs for anomalies so they can identify potential issues and alert IT teams.

This streamlines problem identification, allowing teams to address issues faster and focus on proactive maintenance.

Patch Automation

With suppliers constantly releasing new versions, maintaining consistent, up-to-date software across all systems can be challenging.  Missing an update might mean missing out on the latest security patches, opening your operations to possible intrusion. 

With automation tools, patching your software is as simple as setting a timer. They regularly schedule and deploy patches across your entire organization, ensuring all systems are updated consistently and efficiently.

Conclusion

Corporations are constantly optimizing their business applications to improve efficiency, reach a wider customer base, and drive business growth. However, this rapid evolution can often lead to a complex and ever-changing technology infrastructure. 

AIOps solutions offer a powerful solution. These intelligent tools go beyond simply ensuring resources are available when needed. They do the heavy lifting, freeing up your team’s working hours so they can spend their time fueling your business growth.