The CloudBolt Industry Insights (CII) research analyzes the views of various industries regarding hybrid- and multi-cloud strategies. The latest survey, which is the eighth edition of CII, involved 350 senior IT and DevOps executives from companies with 3,000 or more employees. The findings reveal how automation silos adversely affect cloud operations. The survey was conducted through the Pulse platform, which is a research subsidiary owned by Gartner.
The available data presents a concerning image of automation silos, which are not only real but also expensive and pose a threat to business continuity. Although most teams can access and exchange automations within their silos, the full potential of enterprise-wide automation efficiency and reuse is yet to be achieved. Over half of organizations (57%) limit their automations within individual silos, with 75% acknowledging that silos of automation hinder their ability to integrate cloud operations across functions, resulting in inefficiencies and redundancies. Moreover, 77% indicate that business continuity is significantly at risk whenever a critical member of the team departs. Additionally, a vast majority (88%) agree that centralizing all prior and new automation in one place for the entire organization will ensure compliance, enhance security, enable business continuity, foster reuse, and lower risks.
Upon further examination of the automation silos,
- Growing Tool Overload: Teams in various organizations have access to 27 different automation tools which they use according to their own discretion, resulting in a lack of consistency across teams. This tool overload leads to a “choice paradox” and a lack of standardization, causing suboptimal decision-making. Additionally, teams have no convenient or scalable means to share their best practices and templates with the rest of the organization.
- Automation Silos Are Real, Costly, and Threaten Business Continuity: The existence of automation silos is a genuine concern for businesses as it can lead to significant expenses and jeopardize the continuity of operations. In a recent survey, over half of the participants (55%) revealed that their organizations have four or more automation teams, with a staggering 95% of these teams operating independently. This lack of centralization in automation can pose a significant risk to business operations, especially in instances where vital team members leave.
- The Promise Land: Enterprise leaders are in search of a comprehensive platform to house all their automation to avoid duplication of efforts across their organizations. Almost all technology leaders wish for a singular platform that can serve as a central, company-wide repository for tried and tested automation that can be shared and reused across teams, departments, and regions. Encouragingly, 57% of respondents are taking steps towards fulfilling this desire by making centralized automation a crucial initiative or planning to do so in the near future.
According to Rick Kilcoyne, the Chief Technology Officer of CloudBolt,
“Our latest CII report reveals that today’s enterprises suffer from disconnected and disparate automation practices.
“To reap the full benefits of cloud automation, it is time IT teams acknowledge automation silos are real and establish an automation Center of Excellence (CoE) with the remit to unify the disparate pieces into a single repository for consistent re-use – accessible to all who need it.”
