4 reasons to automate VMs with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

April 15, 2026•
Resource type: Checklist
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Automate the full lifecycle management of virtual machines (VMs) running on any virtualization platform, including existing applications and related infrastructure. Automation expedites migration, enforces security policies, reduces risk, and allows teams to focus on other key priorities. Whether an organization migrates, modernizes, or operates multiple virtualization platforms, the right automation platform can help deliver with speed, efficiency, consistency, and accuracy. Organizations can automate virtual infrastructure operations with these 4 steps. 

1. Provision with ease for innovation

Efficient provisioning of virtual infrastructure is a key requirement for many IT organizations. Therefore new VMs must be provided quickly. Extended teams must orchestrate across related infrastructure, including network, storage, security toolchains, and internal requirements such as creating snapshots. Once the infrastructure is available, applications or other workloads must then be deployed, making it a complex process that automation can expedite. A flexible automation platform can help deliver complex VM-based solutions so businesses can:

  • Provision VMs with automation across the hybrid cloud.
  • Use Source of Truth (SoT) assets to ensure consistent and compliant VMs.
  • Create workflows to automate tasks such as connecting related infrastructure, creating snapshots, and installing monitoring agents.
  • Foster innovation by expediting VM delivery for development, test and production uses, and in platform engineering or development initiatives. 

2. Maximize operational efficiency

IT teams are responsible for managing the VMs and infrastructure they create, which involves health monitoring, backups, patching, and troubleshooting. When VMs are no longer needed, they must be thoroughly sunset, including tasks like revoking access privileges and moving or sunsetting applications. Automation handles virtual infrastructure management needs from inception to final sunsetting and helps teams: 

  • Improve the security posture through automated security and compliance checks
  • Use event-driven automation to respond to issues as desired for fast resolution and lower mean time to repair.
  • Handle patching and updating at scale, saving time and ensuring accuracy.
  • Optimize infrastructure costs and reduce risks by sunsetting unneeded VMs without missing steps, e.g., disabling access privileges. 

3. Manage virtual infrastructure across platforms

Regardless of the platform selected for running virtualization, organizations can use automation to complement and extend management toolsets to operate the full infrastructure at scale. IT leaders can help virtual operations teams to:

  • Use trusted automation content to manage VMs on a variety of platforms across cloud environments, on premise, and edge implementations.
  • Automate required tasks to make processes efficient and consistent.
  • Integrate with desired vendor toolsets, depending on the platform of choice.
  • Complete tasks across the operational lifecycle from initial provisioning to ongoing management to final sunsetting. 

4. Simplify multivendor virtualization workloads

As companies assess and update their virtualization strategies, workloads may be running on multiple virtualization platforms. A common automation platform can simplify highly complex operations. To advance innovation while managing complexity and orchestrating transition periods efficiently, IT leaders can:

  • Migrate groups of VMs at scale by determining network, data, and other requirements, then automating migrations at scale.
  • Modernize applications using automation across the lifecycle, including provisioning, orchestration, compliance management, and ongoing operations.
  • Address related infrastructure needs for any virtualization platform.
  • Support operations across multiple virtualization platforms with a single automation solution.  

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Tags:Automation and management