Extending IT capabilities with automation.

It is no secret that effectively managing an IT infrastructure is an enormous--and expensive--challenge. Industry analysts estimate that today up to 80% of most businesses' IT budgets are spent just fixing problems and keeping the systems running. This ratio of expenditure/efficiency cannot be sustained if the ultimate goal of IT is to bring value to the business. In addition, CIOs are under pressure to increase the agility of their IT systems so they can react to quickly shifting business needs--all while managing systems that are getting more and more complex. This is a daunting task that needs to be addressed amidst the long CIO "to do" list. However, the upside far outweighs the status quo alternative, as improving the management and agility of IT can have a significant impact on the cost of conducting business.

What we find in the IT world today is a real need to improve the utilization rate of existing assets (usually estimated around 20-30%), increase system availability and resiliency, and reduce reliance on manual intervention. Achieving these goals is especially challenging for CIOs who face the constant pressure to cut costs and do more with less.

How can these lofty goals be addressed simultaneously? The answer is to add intelligence to computer systems so they can configure, heal, optimize and protect themselves--automatically. An automated system is one that has the capability to monitor and manage its own processes and thus deliver increased value to the organization.

Today, IT administrators can spend hours, even days, on routine tasks, such as locating problems or planning capacity. In fact, it is no secret that the vast majority of IT functions are still run manually. These administrative inefficiencies and the risks implied with manual processes impede businesses from reducing costs and improving the quality of service that's delivered to their customers, partners or internal users.

Businesses today face the ultimate Catch-22. The fast-paced business environment requires that companies rely on new technology to remain competitive and respond to customers and partners more quickly. Yet, each time new hardware, applications and devices are added to the IT environment, there is the potential to reduce the productivity of the IT staff, which now has a more intricate and larger infrastructure to manage. The more IT 'stuff' you have, the more people you need to run and manage it. In addition, this push for IT efficiency has resulted in over-purchasing, over-allocating, and over-hiring. IT departments are planning for the "worst case" scenario: plenty of hardware and software, too much capacity, and a whole lot of people. They have more than ever, but it isn't working better than before.

While these problems are not going to disappear completely, automation technologies will help keep them at bay and manage an ever growing and more complex IT infrastructure.

The shift from manual intervention to a fully automated management process will not take place overnight, but bringing automation into the IT environment is the first step towards helping IT administrators more efficiently manage vast IT architectures. Automation will also help administrators reduce their reliance on human intervention (which is inherently error-prone) and significantly reduce the time spent on a number of routine, time-consuming tasks, such as adjusting resources, updating security patches and managing storage provisioning. It will allow them to focus on projects and tasks that increase the value they bring to their organizations and departments--in essence, getting to that CIO "to do" list.

Since automation is a relatively new approach, there is a concern that organizations may need to undertake a significant investment to reach some of the many benefits it can provide. But this is not the case. Automation is based on multiple levels--from a basic, low-cost implementation that simply replaces some manually driven tasks, to a fully adaptive environment where the system predicts problems and automatically responds with the fix before the business is affected. Besides, businesses can implement automation technologies in an evolutionary fashion, at a pace that best fits their IT budget. So, companies can work within the level most effective for their business, whether immediately or in the long-term, moving up the chain towards new levels as the policies and requirements of their business, their customers and partners, dictate.

For example, Organization A may need to improve resource allocation to bring capital outlay in line with new spending constraints. However, Organization B may need to focus on increasing availability of resources to support a significant promotion or new product launch and resulting demands on Web traffic. In most of today's environments, the above system requirements typically consume a significant part of the IT staff's time, restricting their ability to focus on other important aspects of the business. In both cases, the problem could be addressed by automating processes that are draining valuable IT staff resources.

Bringing intelligence into storage, security or applications management could easily address the limitations many departments and organizations face in improving the agility and flexibility of IT environments that need to adapt to fast changing market conditions. Intelligent IT systems allow for the automation of routine tasks and permit organizations to respond to those changing business conditions, whether dictated by the evolution of the business or market trends. Automation technologies also help organizations closely, and quickly align business and IT objectives.

As for resources, automation will result in a reduction of IT operating costs, lessening the need to allocate resources for repetitive and mundane tasks. This, in turn, frees IT administrators to focus on strategic initiatives that have a direct impact on making the business more competitive, resilient and ready to manage growth.

An automated IT environment can predict and adapt to system changes and requirements as needed, without human intervention. It allows for the system to fix and/or address potential problems and threats (such as a system crash or security attack) before they impact business operations. It can allocate resources when, where and how they are best suited to run the business without interruption and in line with business policies. An automated IT environment can address competitive, seasonal and geopolitical events that have a direct impact on the ability to conduct business.

For example, a traditional retailer that has both store and online operations can use automation technology to allocate resources more effectively. The peak time at the store site is usually during the midday lunch hour, while the peak time for the online sales takes place in the early evenings. The systems can "sense and respond" to these changes in real time, adding new server capacity to the appropriate location as required to meet demand. The retailer doesn't have to buy more servers than it needs, or hire additional staff to manage both operations. The system does what it was meant to do from the start, while the retailer delivers superior service to customers at no additional cost to the business.

Or take, for example, Nokia, the world leader in mobile communications. Nokia has an internal IT user base of over 70,000 people that it needs to support in order to drive its business forward. Nokia had multiple systems and databases with outdated personnel information. Several systems were required to make updates to the user profiles, which meant extensive manual effort. This situation was only increasing in complexity as the company continued to grow and the challenge for IT administrators to determine who should have access to what information was becoming a daunting task.

The group chose an automated identity management solution to provide access to critical data and applications to the right people at the organization. This ensured that personnel changes did not pose a security threat for Nokia, its customers or its partners. Nokia now has a centralized and automated system to manage and update identities across its systems. Nokia has increased employee productivity and reduced administration costs.

There are many reasons why an organization may require automation but, no matter what the focus, automation is a requirement for any organization looking to adapt to market trends and seeking to respond to customer and partner needs on demand. Bringing automation into the IT ecosystem is a significant step towards becoming an on-demand business as it allows for the allocation of resources in real time.

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Sandy Carter is vice president of marketing at IBM Tivoli Software (White Plains. NY)