Perhaps you like being in control? So do I, but there are limits. I want to be in control of cooking my steak on the BBQ (a bit of nice weather and we Brits can’t wait!), but I really don’t want to be flying the jet to take me on holiday.
I know that flying example isn’t entirely automatic, but it is to me, as the passenger. In fact, a lot of what the flight crew do is automated (cue visions of the autopilot in Airplane) or highly scripted following well-tested checklists.
Let’s get back to the need for automation in IT. There are hundreds of jobs IT admins do every day that they’d rather they didn’t need to do. It’s not hard to think of examples: how often do you want to unlock user accounts when they’ve exceeded the attempt count? Do you really want to get involved with adding users to an AD group to access a printer or get on with commissioning the new firewall or backup system that will keep your business more secure?
Osirium recently published a report on IT Automation, based on independent research, that revealed the main reasons why more IT tasks aren’t delegated. The good news was that 92% of businesses recognise the value of delegating IT tasks from admins to the help desk or end-users. But, less than half (43%) said they delegate most of their work. The reason why not? Risk concerns were listed as one of the common concerns holding back delegation. 29% cited security risks, 25% compliance risks, and 24% performance risks.
IT experts are, rightly, risk-averse. They need to keep the business secure and running.
The way to address those concerns is with automation. Automation reduces the chances of mistakes and means that tasks can be delegated to other staff to reduce the load on the experts.
IT admins already use a lot of automation in their daily work. Usually, it’s with a set of scripts using PowerShell or BASH to avoid typing out long, complex command-line instructions. That certainly helps, but it’s also risky. Who knows those scripts exist and what they do? In the worst cases, the scripts might even include usernames and passwords to make them easier to use — not a good idea!
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is being widely adopted for business process automation even in some IT teams. But RPA isn’t the perfect solution for IT process automation (ITPA). In the survey, only 31% of survey respondents thought RPA could effectively automate all IT tasks, and 35% thought RPA was applicable to a limited number of IT tasks. RPA is seen as expensive and inflexible for many IT tasks.
The answer is to look for an automation platform that is secure, flexible, and one where it’s easy to build automation workflows. That is precisely why Osirium built Osirium Automation. Customers are using it to delegate everyday tasks like account reset to help desks and increasingly to staff at remote offices with no local IT support.
Osirium are experts in cybersecurity, especially privileged access management (PAM), so secure automation of IT processes that have been their unique skill in that domain for many years.
Even if an organisation is on the RPA train, it’s not the right solution for every situation, and Osirium Automation is the perfect complement.
Now to get the BBQ fired up …
