Part of a Green Data Center is process automation to minimize the resources to make changes, and make the changes faster. This article on searchdatacenter.com points to findings from the Gartner Data Center Conference.
Organizations are increasingly ready to invest in IT process automation (ITPA) technology, software that
aims to make IT operations more efficient, according to findings from the Gartner Data Center Conference in Las Vegas last month. According to David Williams, a research vice president at the Stamford, Conn.-based research firm, , about one-third of attendees had moved beyond the tire-kicking stage and were ready to buy.
And goes on to highlight vendors in this space.
Three of the most visible independent IT process automation vendors are NetIQ Corp., Opalis, and Optinuity Inc., and all have recently announced new IT process automation products. In October 2007, NetIQ introduced a software platform called Aegis that automates predefined workflows for such processes as patch management, virtual machine provisioning and incident management and integrates with existing service automation tools from third-party vendors. In November 2007, Opalis launched a new version of its Opalis Integration Server that enables IT process automation within service-oriented architecture and provides a testing environment for IT process workflow prior to deployment. Also in November, Optinuity introduced its Oasis, a system that integrates and automates policy management, monitoring and job scheduling for IT operations.
What's the reason for all this vendor activity? Both Williams and Mann say that the time is finally right for automation due to the complexity of IT infrastructures and taxing workloads of IT staff. "IT process automation has been around as a concept for a long time," said Mann. "Because of the growing complexity of IT, data centers are looking to either simplify their environments or fill gaps with automation tools that enable half the staff to manage the same workload." Williams points to other specific drivers of the IT process automation market. "High availability, disaster recovery and ITIL are all pushing data centers to seek operational efficiency gains," he said. "Using IT process automation tools to eliminate repetitive, manual processes is a good way to achieve that."