Chapter 1: Introduction to IT Process Automation
by Chad Marshall

For many organizations, IT Process Automation (ITPA) is little more than a dream. IT managers, easily overwhelmed in the complexity and day-to-day rigor of maintaining IT services and supporting production environments, are spread far too thin to spend the necessary time to examine all the variables that need to be understood to completely automate systems. The business that they support is often complex and, to some, a mystery wrought with continuous change management concerns, never-ending problem management sessions, and production incidents that keep teams around the globe busy at all hours of the day and night. Processes are being initiated to manage incidents, changes, server provisioning, backup and recovery exercises, and security, just to name a few, and these processes depend upon many different systems and subject matter experts (SMEs). Further, the systems used to maintain the IT infrastructure are themselves in a constant state of change as vendors release new software versions and security fixes are applied to existing systems to protect the infrastructure. Considering all this complexity, the thought of automating IT processes can be quite overwhelming. Where to begin?This guide examines IT processes and the steps organizations can take to begin to turn the dream of ITPA into a much-anticipated reality. The benefits of ITPA will enable IT organizations to take full command of their infrastructure, realize greater efficiency, become more effective, and deliver an amazing level of business agility that will enable any organization to rapidly respond to changing business requirements with reduced overhead and greater focus on the business.

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