6 ways to promote organization-wide IT automation

Successfully deploy enterprise-wide IT automation with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

Three out of five infrastructure automation decision makers say that automation is one of their organization’s top initiatives.1 Even so, many organizations struggle to progress from task-based or infrastructure automation efforts to enterprise-wide IT automation adoption. Misalignment between senior management and those implementing automation, lack of clear standards and governance, and disconnects between existing domain-specific solutions often impede broader automation initiatives.

Bringing people and processes together on a unified platform can help your organization realize the full value of IT automation. Here are six ways you can use Red Hat® Ansible® Automation Platform to promote enterprise-wide automation adoption.

1. Deploy a unified platform 

Automation delivers the most value when it is applied to complete workflows. Deploy a unified automation platform that works consistently across your teams, processes, and IT environments and scales to meet the needs of your entire organization. Choose a user-friendly platform that all roles within your organization can use without extensive training.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform uses an intuitive, human-readable, YAML-based language that lets everyone in your organization participate in automation initiatives. Access to certified Content Collections — tested, verified, supported automation code from Red Hat and partners — helps you start new projects faster and more easily. Integrated management tools let you monitor how much automation is used, access and share certified content, and create self-service automation workflows. With a single, supported solution, teams can focus on delivering more value through automation.

2. Create a cross-organizational automation team

Cross-team collaboration, coordination, and visibility can accelerate your automation initiatives. Create a core team of stakeholders that share automation best practices, experiences, and accomplishments. This team should promote your organization’s overall automation strategy and work with senior management to gain support for these initiatives. Stakeholders should also guide others along their automation journey by helping them to get started with your automation platform and providing reusable content.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform provides built-in auditing and visibility to help stakeholders monitor, promote, and optimize your organization’s automation use. Included with the platform, Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform gives you a visual dashboard, health notifications, and organizational statistics across different teams, making it easier to analyze, aggregate, and report data  about your automation environment and determine the return on investment associated with your automation efforts.

3. Share automation content

Sharing and reusing automation content across teams increases consistency and efficiency while introducing new team members to automation. Build a centralized repository for curated and trusted automation content. Each team can create automation content in their area of expertise and publish it to the repository for use by other teams.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform includes access to automation hub, a centralized repository for certified automation content. You can also use the private automation hub option to create an on-site location for storing and curating your automation assets.

4. Integrate your existing tools

Many teams within your organizations likely use domain-specific tools and solutions acquired over time. Incorporate these tools into your automation platform using standard, open interfaces and plugins.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform provides access to certified Content Collections for a variety of third-party platforms and tools, allowing you to integrate and automate existing IT assets with confidence. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform also includes REST application programming interfaces (APIs) for all components to simplify and speed integration with your environment.

5. Track automation metrics

Metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential for showing progress on your organization’s automation journey. Identify and track metrics that are meaningful to your organization. Track both high-level business KPIs, as well as more tactical IT-level metrics to monitor your progress.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform includes an intuitive, web-based return on investment (ROI) calculator to help you measure the value of your automation initiatives in terms of actual time and money saved at any point in time.

6. Apply clear automation standards and governance

Consistency is at the core of effective enterprise-wide automation initiatives. Define clear guidelines for your organization’s automation assets and use. Standardize testing, review, and release processes to ensure consistency and repeatability. Maintain access controls to prevent unauthorized use.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform lets you incorporate your standards and governance directly into your automation framework. Built-in testing and life-cycle management capabilities help you maintain high code quality levels and create continuous integration pipelines. Role-based access controls (RBAC) integrate with your existing identity management systems to streamline user administration.

Learn from the experts

Learn how Red Hat Consulting can help you adopt automation faster: redhat.com/en/consulting/automation

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