Ready or not, IT automation is undergoing major changes

IT automation is a difficult product category to evaluate. For example, for every major technology vendor that offers a suite of tools, there are several extremely popular point solutions that do their job remarkably well. This high degree of fragmentation often means that end users select solutions based on product integration as much as on features or cost.

This approach often works because companies typically like to be able to assemble their own custom tool stacks. That said, a best-of-breed approach, whether integrated or not, also comes with its own challenges. For example, when a problem arises, different interpretations of the issue from different automation tools can slow down diagnosis and, in the worst case, trigger a blame game between teams.

But in the broader picture, the entire category is changing as vendor consolidation and AI integration begin to change the landscape of IT automation. I predict the IT automation market will look very different in two years, and I think that’s a good thing for enterprise customers.

The Disadvantages of the Status Quo in IT Automation

Let’s start with the challenges that IT automation has faced:

1. Multiple versions of the truth — Automation tools are often targeted to a specific IT role, like DevOps, or a specific layer of the stack, like containers. So, we often see a DevOps leader using one set of tools and an SRE using another. This can create challenges in a crisis. A single event can trigger multiple alarms that can trigger an uncoordinated response. Additionally, it can be difficult for teams to develop the right path to resolve an issue due to different interpretations of the problem. So even if you have great visibility and analytics, you may not get great diagnosis and remediation.
2. Event-driven approaches — IT automation tools are often event-driven. Events can be routine, like launching a software update, or one-time events, like rebooting a hung server when a specific trigger is fired. These types of robotic actions can be very useful for allowing IT resources to better scale their efforts. However, this approach can also pose the problem of programmability versus exception handling. Developing event-driven workflows can be difficult to program in heterogeneous environments, given the number of exceptions that can be thrown. Additionally, it’s difficult to create enough workflows to handle all the different possibilities. And neither of these things are ideal for black swan events like the recent Crowdstrike BSOD incident.
3. Technology-centric versus business-centric — IT automation tools have always been designed with the goal of reducing IT costs by increasing the capacity of existing IT resources. And while that has indeed happened, other aspects of IT operations—such as predictive capability, optimizing cloud deployments, and enforcing corporate compliance policies—aren’t automated. We’re starting to see IT automation vendors take some of these elements into account. Some of the more forward-thinking vendors are actually leveraging ideas from supply chain management to deliver a more holistic, business-centric approach to IT. (We’ll get to that in a moment.) But there’s still a long way to go.

The Benefits of the New Wave of IT Automation

As I mentioned above, there are a lot of changes reshaping the IT automation market, and I think they will ultimately be beneficial over the next couple of years. Here are some of the positive trends that are driving a behind-the-scenes revolution in how businesses will handle nearly every aspect of IT service delivery in the years to come.

1. Market consolidation — Large technology vendors have made big moves in the IT automation space. For example, while many view Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware as a virtualization play, VMware’s IT automation stack was also quite robust and was capable of handling much more than just virtual machines for a long time. So the IT automation aspect of this deal shouldn’t be overlooked. At the same time, IBM has spent the last few years building an IT automation stack based on the organic development of solutions like IBM Concert as well as multiple acquisitions, including Apptio, Turbonomic, Instana, and now HashiCorp. These large vendors are all intent on providing a more unified and coordinated approach to IT automation. And it’s not just the big players: we’re also seeing smaller companies in this space adding assets through acquisitions to improve their security or AI posture.
2. AI and observability — Like most technologies, IT automation is going to get a big boost from AI. In the case of IT automation, that boost comes from both machine learning and generative AI. Machine learning will dramatically improve observability and create predictive models to set triggers and automatically create the right workflows. We’re also seeing generative AI being used to help feed suggestions back to IT to fix issues as they arise. But more importantly, the underlying data models driving AI will also help unify disparate information silos across organizations. Take Dynatrace: While it’s a good example of a company that has touted the effectiveness of a single IT automation platform for years, it has also introduced its own AI solution to improve how it predicts issues and creates workflows to mitigate them. In the long term, you’ll also see AI used more actively in application optimization. For example, there may be a performance benefit from switching to a different storage model or database. A well-trained AI can keep an eye on a company’s trusted vendors to find the most efficient technology, or even the best commercial offering, as the market evolves.
3. A supply chain mindset — The evolution of IT automation is starting to resemble that of companies that have evolved to manage physical supply chains. One of the key similarities is that supply chain management is no longer an isolated function but a cross-functional team effort. When a new application is planned, it’s not just the technology requirements that are important for selecting components and services; business factors such as supportability and budgeting must also be considered. And given the highly distributed nature of application services and infrastructure, regular reviews are mandatory, not only from an operational perspective, but also from a human capacity, cost, and compliance perspective. Many intelligent IT operations now follow these practices, but the tools haven’t always kept up. Two companies that are really starting to dig into this supply chain concept are IBM and JFrog. Although their products are aimed at individual practitioners, each product portfolio works holistically to address the end-to-end application lifecycle. These solutions are a good example of how physical supply chains work in the real world.

Further development is needed

The big question is whether all of these changes will live up to their potential. I think so, but there are a few caveats to consider. First, the ROI model will need to evolve. These solutions can become expensive, and if the value proposition is simply reducing IT costs, it may not be enough. Other considerations, such as the time it will take to complete a compliance audit or the value of higher-quality software (in other words, delivering business results), will need to be factored in.

There’s also complexity and overlap to consider. Large vendors have been rapidly updating their IT automation stacks through acquisitions, so refactoring efforts will be required. Additionally, third-party integrations will always be necessary. As I said at the beginning of this article, some tools are best-in-class at what they do, and customers who use them will likely be reluctant to abandon them. Future winners in this market will need to be able to showcase both innovation and integration.

That said, the potential for more holistic, predictable, and automated IT operations has never been greater since the pre-cloud days of large, monolithic systems management suites. That’s good news.

Moor Insights & Strategy provides or has provided paid services to technology companies, as do all technology research and analytics firms. These services include research, analysis, consulting, advisory, benchmarking, acquisition matching, and video and conference sponsorships. Of the companies mentioned in this article, Moor Insights & Strategy currently has (or has had) a paid business relationship with Broadcom and IBM.