Cloud automation: how important is it for your business in 2021?

Since its inception, cloud computing has captured the imagination of the IT world and businesses around the globe. The invention of the cloud was a massive paradigm shift; it fundamentally transformed how we store and process information.

And the cloud computing industry continues to grow. The public cloud market will become a $623.3 billion industry by 2023. Almost 32% of the IT budget gets spent on cloud services. And, by 2025, it’s estimated that worldwide cloud storage will exceed 100 Zettabytes. These stats show that most companies are adopting cloud services for their business.

Now, with time every technology gets evolved, and the same is the case with cloud computing. Cloud automation is the cutting-edge evolution that will transform businesses in the upcoming years. For those who don’t know, cloud automation is a set of tools and processes for managing cloud services to reduce manual efforts and time spent behind the scenes.

• Companies using cloud automation will see a 15% annual growth in their revenue.
• 84% of the organizations that adopted cloud automation have increased their revenue and decreased operational costs.
• The cloud automation market will reach $103.9 billion by 2025.

All these statistics indicate that businesses should adopt cloud automation. But, the question is, how can it help businesses in their day-to-day operations? In this post, we’ll analyze the role of cloud automation and its business benefits in 2021.

Business Benefits of Cloud Automation

1. Improving High-End Security

One of the reasons businesses hesitate with their cloud adoption is security. With cloud automation coming into the picture, you can eliminate human intervention, which means fewer manual errors that compromise safety. Also, when you take the assistance of automation, there’s no need for multiple people working on the same system. It will also contribute to robust security policies as you won’t have multiple people accessing the system.

2. Providing Scalability and Elasticity

Any business that needs to scale up its infrastructure regularly due to customer demands should try cloud automation services. Manually managing cloud services is possible when your business is at the initial stages and has few resources. However, managing terabytes of data in thousands of virtual machines becomes complicated at an enterprise level. This is where automation becomes handy, as it helps resolve scalability worries.

3. Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is an essential parameter that determines the success of a business. If your TCO is very high, you’re not making much profit with your business as you’re spending a lot of money behind your resources. However, if you can lower your TCO, then you can be highly profitable in your business. That’s where cloud automation has a role to play. It would cut down your hardware costs and also the human resources required to maintain them.

4. Centralized Governance

Multiple people get involved in the process when you’re managing your cloud services manually or on an ad-hoc basis. In this environment, you don’t have total control over the proceedings, and holding any single person accountable for any fault would be difficult. Switching to automation would sort out all these worries and provide you with centralized governance. Also, you’re in more control of infrastructure, enabling you to make informed business decisions.

5. Allows Continuous Deployment

Since CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) and DevOps are currently trending processes in the IT industry, switching to cloud automation makes more sense. Continuous deployment is only possible when you’re automating your application workflow pipeline, and with cloud automation services, you will get the facility to do it. That is why more and more businesses are adopting cloud automation services in today’s day and age.

6. Higher Productivity and Efficiency

One of the primary reasons you should opt for automation is to ensure higher operational productivity and efficiency. The same applies to cloud automation, where businesses opt for it to complete their tasks faster and more efficiently. For example, it may take hundreds of days to complete a task when done using human intervention. However, you can do the same thing within a few minutes with the help of automation. That’s why it seals the deal for all.

7. Smart Backup Facility

Companies deal with a lot of data — it’s really the new currency in the 21st century. As follows, backup is such a critical component of today’s business environment. With cloud automation services, you don’t have to worry about backups. It will automatically take care of it frequently throughout the day and saves you from losing out on precious data in case of a system failure. With business owners having so much on their plate, automation makes their job more manageable than ever before.

Cloud Automation Use Cases

So far, we have analyzed the various business benefits that cloud automation can bring in today’s day and age. However, the question remains, in which manner or for what purpose could businesses use cloud automation? Let’s find out that in our next section that discusses use cases of cloud automation in detail.

1. Multi-Cloud Management

Multi-cloud is a concept gaining popularity day by day in the IT sector. Here, you combine multiple public or private clouds to achieve higher productivity for your business operations. Multi-cloud management is where cloud automation has a significant role to play. Dealing with multiple clouds can be a tedious task with the human workforce. However, you can streamline your operations and transfer the data between multiple clouds with the help of automation.

2. Data Discovery and Classification

Though this use case of cloud automation is not in full force now, in the future, data discovery and classification will be highly essential with the introduction of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Cloud automation tools can help businesses ensure GDPR compliance by scanning and identifying sensitive information. However, data discovery and classification require a lot of effort, and that’s why automation is a great option.

3. Identity Management

In an enterprise-level organization, you have so many users accessing the central server, and each one of them will require a specific level of access. Now, manually setting up identity management policies for users would take a lot of time and effort. Also, updating those policies whenever a new user joins an organization or an existing user leaves the organization would be cumbersome. In this type of scenario, automation is your best bet as it saves time and effort.

Wrapping Up Things

Every new technology in the IT world is evolving with time, and so is the case with cloud computing. Since its inception, the cloud has come a long way, with public, private, and hybrid cloud coming into the picture. Then the multi-cloud approach came, and now, we’re moving towards automation where businesses can increase their operational efficiency significantly.

Cloud automation will play a massive role in the transformation of today’s business. However, taking advantage of cloud automation will be up to individual organizations. In this blog, we have showcased various benefits that cloud automation brings to the table and use cases that are helpful for businesses.