Analysis: IT Automation

Techies have always had a penchant for processes that run themselves. We build scripts for our servers, macros for our clients and engage in constant, obsessive pursuit of total instrumentation of our organizations' IT operations.

Yet though robotic efficiencies have long been a staple of Detroit's assembly lines, the industry that conceived this grand vision has barely begun to enjoy the fruits of automation. Incredibly, it's been about three years since Hewlett-Packard's Adaptive Enterprise and IBM's autonomic computing theologies electrified us with tales of servers reconfiguring themselves and networks that would wrap around cable cuts, freeing IT from the drudgery of operational expenses.Initiatives to deliver self-healing networks may be eons old in Internet time, but deployment reality is still in its infancy. Few are willing--or can afford--to standardize on one vendor's architectural vision of how the ideal network should look. Heterogeneity continues to be essential; price still matters.

With this real-world perspective, we set out to take a snapshot of the state of IT automation. We went looking for technologies that can be implemented today and return bottom-line results.

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What we found is that provisioning users as they enter and leave the organization is an area ripe for mechanization. In "Flex Time", security expert Greg Shipley takes an in-depth look at identity-management tools and technologies, pulling together the expertise of IT managers across the industry to assess the worth, risks and challenges of IdM.

In "Easy Does IT", Michael Biddick points out that process automation requires sophisticated management software, but making a full-on architectural commitment to an HP or IBM isn't realistic for all organizations. Fortunately, smaller vendors have developed affordable process-automation packages. We put three such suites to the test.

There's no doubt that SCM (server configuration management) can free IT from repetitive tasks and minimize disruptions. But as Andrew Conry-Murray and Bill Driscoll found when they tallied the costs of deploying SCM packages from BladeLogic and Opsware in our latest TCO Series installment, you can expect a hefty price tag.Finally, check out our NWC Reports exclusive, where Norm Jacknis, CIO of Westchester County, N.Y., identifies top best practices for IT automation. --David Greenfield-->