Automate infrastructure workflows

Build a unified, automated pipeline for infrastructure operations

See what’s inside

Page 1 Page 7
IT infrastructure is a critical business asset Streamline complete workflows
with a unified automation platform
Page 2
What is infrastructure automation? Page 8
Automate your infrastructure with
Page 3 Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
What can you automate?
Page 9
Page 4 Customer success highlight:
Automate your build pipeline: Siemens
Base infrastructure considerations
Page 10
Page 5 Ready to automate your infrastructure?
Automate your build pipeline:
Operating system, networking,
and storage considerations

Page 6
Automate your build pipeline:
Application considerations

Automate infrastructure workflows | Contents

IT infrastructure is a critical business asset

Today’s businesses depend on IT infrastructure and applications. As a result, IT teams

now play a strategic role in their company’s success. Even so, IT budgets are not The need for automation
increasing, and IT teams must manage increasingly large, complex, and disparate IT
Across industries, organizations are
infrastructure without hiring new staff.
automating to overcome infrastructure
Most organizations use a domain-centric approach to infrastructure management. management challenges.
Each team manages their own area of expertise using their preferred tools and
methods. Tools, techniques, and best practices are rarely shared between teams.
This redundancy and lack of collaboration result in higher costs and lower efficiency. 52%
Additionally, because domain expertise is concentrated, only a few staff members may of organization boards expect
be able to perform a given task, causing delays if those staff members are unavailable. IT to increase efficiencies
through automation.1
Infrastructure automation can help you optimize and transform your IT
Automation is essential for both IT optimization and digital transformation. To support
business success, IT environments must be efficient, scalable, and reliable. Infrastruc-
ture automation can help your organization streamline operations, improve agility, 86%
boost productivity, and increase security and availability. of organizations cite too many
manual processes as a challenge
Most organizations that have started to automate their infrastructure are doing so in managing IT spending.2
by domain. As with overall infrastructure management, each team uses their chosen
automation tools and processes, prompting higher costs, lower efficiency, and limited
collaboration. Additionally, many automation tools do not integrate with each other
and different teams often take dissimilar approaches to infrastructure automation.
This results in time-consuming manual handoffs between teams that can significantly
delay projects and resource delivery, even though automation is applied to tasks within
the workflow.

Increase your automation benefits with a holistic approach

A holistic approach to automation can help you save time, increase quality, improve employee satisfaction, and reduce costs throughout
your entire infrastructure and organization. IT teams can be more productive, reduce errors, improve collaboration, and free up time for
more meaningful, thoughtful work.

A holistic approach to infrastructure automation can help your organization:

Speed operations Improve agility Boost productivity Increase reliability Improve security
and development. and responsiveness. and efficiency. and availability. and compliance.

1 Harvey Nash and KPMG, “CIO Survey 2019: A Changing Perspective,” 2019.
2 Flexera, “2020 Flexera Digital Transformation Planning Report,” February 2020.

Automate infrastructure workflows | 1

What is infrastructure automation?

Infrastructure automation uses software to create repeatable instructions and pro-

cesses to replace or reduce human interaction with IT systems. Automation software The benefits of automation
works within the confines of those instructions, tools, and frameworks to perform tasks
Organizations that deployed a holistic
with little to no human intervention. Most IT tasks can be automated to some extent.
automation platform experience:
Examples include:

• Managing physical infrastructure

68%
• Administering virtualized environments more productive IT infrastructure
• Provisioning cloud resources management teams3

• Managing networks

• Administering storage and data 44%

more efficient infrastructure
• Deploying applications
configuration management3
• Running standardardized operating environments (SOEs)

Streamline ongoing infrastructure operations

You can also automate ongoing operations across your environment. Examples include:
31%
more productive network
• User and access management. Add, remove, and change user access to resources. management teams3

• Troubleshooting and debugging. Check system health and collect and log data.

• Inventory management. Create inventories of your assets and compare 20%

configurations to your desired state.
faster network provisioning
and deployment3
Task automation or workflow automation?
Effective IT infrastructure management requires you to automate both individual tasks
and entire workflows.
41%
Task automation streamlines single functions performed by one more efficient application
person on one infrastructure resource. It speeds operations at the environment management teams3
staff action level and reduces the time it takes to perform specific
job functions.

Workflow automation connects multiple tasks into a single progres- 20%

sion. It speeds operations at the process level and moves automatically more efficient application
from one task to the next, reducing wait times due to handoffs between security management3
teams. Workflow automation also facilitates self-service operations
while preserving IT control over resources.

3 IDC White Paper, sponsored by Red Hat. “Red Hat Ansible Automation Improves IT Agility and Time to Market,” June 2019. Document #US45090419.

Automate infrastructure workflows | 2

What can you automate?

You can automate most aspects of your infrastructure. In fact, a key use case for infrastructure automation is connecting teams,
processes, and tools into a single, automated workflow. An example of a unified, automated build pipeline is shown in Figure 1.

User submits request through ticketing system

Sample
Production databases Business applications Development environments
workloads

Infrastructure placement decisions and planning

Hardware and servers Virtualized infrastructure Cloud resources

Operating system

Sample actions
for delivering
resources to users Networking

Storage

Applications

IT closes ticket and notifies user of available resources

Figure 1. Automation can help you streamline entire workflows like build pipelines.

The following sections follow this workflow to demonstrate how you can use automation to streamline a request for IT resources,
as well as other domain-specific use cases.

Step 1: Identify workload requirements

Each workload has different requirements that determine where it should be deployed. Some workloads need high-performance
infrastructure while others call for high availability or increased flexibility. Resource use and cost may also be a consideration.

Identify the key requirements of your workload. Depending on your IT environment, you may choose to deploy your workload on
physical, virtualized, or cloud infrastructure. You should also consider storage, networking, and security requirements at this time.

Automate infrastructure workflows | 3

Automate your build pipeline

Base infrastructure considerations

Step 2: Set up base infrastructure

Infrastructure is the underlying foundation for all IT operations and users. Automating underlying infrastructure life-cycle management
streamlines operations and improves accuracy and security. It also allows you to consistently deploy applications and workloads across
hybrid environments, including physical, virtualized, and cloud infrastructure. Regardless of infrastructure, automation can help you:

• Change resource configurations. • Update and patch systems. • Track inventory across infrastructures.

• Monitor and correct configuration drift. • Monitor system health and log results. • Update, sync, and perform comparisons
within your configuration management
• Apply and enforce security policies. • Rotate system logs. database (CMDB).

Hardware and servers Virtualized resources Cloud services

Physical infrastructure is often chosen Virtualized environments are often Cloud infrastructure is often chosen
for performance-sensitive applications chosen for workloads that require high for workloads that need to be spun up
like production databases. reliability like business applications. and down to optimize resource use and
cost like development environments.
Why automate? Why automate?
Why automate?
Once servers are installed in your data- Automation can help you manage
center, most administration operations your virtualized environments more Cloud environments are designed for
are carried out using a management effectively to optimize costs and automation. Most cloud components
interface. Automation platforms can control sprawl. You can even automate and services need to be completely
interact with these tools to speed the virtualization hypervisor itself to automated to maximize their value.
operations and reduce setup errors. simplify updates.
Automation use cases
Automation use cases Automation use cases • Provision VMs according to
• Provision physical server resources. • Provision virtual machines (VMs). templates and security profiles.

• Configure BIOS and disk settings. • Assign IP addresses and attach • Set up user credentials, roles, and
storage to VMs. virtual private cloud (VPC) access.
• Install media on servers.
• Move and load balance workloads. • Manage hybrid and multicloud
• Power servers on and off. environments consistently.
• Manage hosts within clusters.
• Diagnose hardware issues. • Orchestrate failovers.
• Find and delete unused VMs.
Recommendations • Ensure consistent network
• Create, manage, and apply connections between your clouds.
Look for an automation platform that templates for hosts and VMs.
integrates with your hardware manage-
Recommendations
ment interfaces through application Recommendations
programming interfaces (APIs) based Look for an automation platform
on open standards like Redfish. Look for an automation platform that integrates with your chosen
that supports your chosen cloud providers.
virtualization hypervisors.

Automate infrastructure workflows | 4

Automate your build pipeline

Operating system, networking,

and storage considerations

Step 3: Install an operating system Step 4: Set up networking Step 5: Configure storage
Most organizations use varied IT stacks Networks connect all areas of your IT Applications rely on data, and data
within their business. Manually manag- and business infrastructure. They must is a critical business asset. Storage
ing each of the different components be managed to allow the right access systems must be configured and
can be tedious and error-prone. and bandwidth to the right users, managed to provide the right data
applications, and data at all times. to the right applications and users.
Why automate?
Why automate? Why automate?
Automation can help you define and
manage a standardized operating Automation can help network teams Automation can help storage teams
environment to improve efficiency, confidently make predefined, pre- reduce manual work to speed oper-
reduce costs, increase uptime, and tested changes on demand. It can also ations. Predefined storage requests
boost security. You can also unify help teams accomplish more within can be automatically provisioned
management of mixed Linux® and each change window. Finally, automa- and storage resources can be scaled
Windows environments. tion can improve change accuracy. dynamically to meet changing needs.

Automation use cases Automation use cases Automation use cases

• Install, update, and manage • Create and manage firewall ports • Configure and connect storage
operating system (OS) images. access control lists (ACLs), and to servers, VMs, apps, and users.
virtual local area networks (VLANs).
• Apply security settings and set • Set up backup agents and validate
up authentication services. • Patch and maintain switches. backup client configuration.

• Manage compliance with corporate • Remediate predefined issues. • Expand storage allocations.
and regulatory requirements.
• Manage and audit changes • Consolidate storage systems
Recommendations and migrate data.
Recommendations
Look for an automation platform that Recommendations
supports the OSes you use. An agen- Look for an automation platform that
tless platform simplifies management allows you to connect and maintain Look for an automation platform that
of multiple OSes, as there is no agent network devices from many vendors can manage storage systems from
to maintain on the system themselves. via a single interface. many vendors via a single interface.

Siemens “We actually have a process HCA Healthcare

uses automation to speed manage- out right now that closes automates data collection, analysis,
ment tasks and improve communica- about 97-98% of the tickets and proactive notification processes
tions security across the business. for its Sepsis Prediction and Optimiza-
that come in via automation.” tion of Therapy (SPOT) platform.
Bart Dworak
Read the success story Software Engineering Manager, Microsoft
Read the success story
Read the success story

Automate infrastructure workflows | 5

Automate your build pipeline

Application considerations

Step 6: Deploy applications

Application deployment is the end goal of our example build process. As key business Migrate your SAP environments
assets, applications and workloads must be configured properly to ensure optimal more easily
performance and security. Many organizations rely on SAP®
databases and applications to manage
Why automate? their business and must migrate to
SAP HANA® and S/4HANA® by 2027 to
Automation can help you consistently deploy applications across development, test,
continue receiving support from SAP.
and production environments as well as physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructures
according to corporate, regulatory, performance, and cost requirements. Key migration steps include:

Automation use cases • Creating and configuring the

• Install, configure, and patch applications. target infrastructure.

• Load data into applications and connect to other required systems. • Deploying new SAP software
on the target infrastructure.
• Configure credential access to applications.
• Replicating data from the existing
• Dynamically scale application resources. to the target environment.

• Manage application life cycles through DevOps approaches and continuous • Moving virtual IP addresses
integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. to the new copy of the data.

Recommendations • Testing the new setup.

Look for an automation platform that can manage as much of the application life cycle • Deprecating the old environment.
as possible via a single interface. CI/CD, DevOps, and software stack management
capabilities allow you to accelerate development and deployment. All of these steps can be accomplished
using infrastructure automation,
increasing the speed and accuracy
Organizations that deployed a holistic automation platform experience:
of the process.

26% 20% 25%

faster application more efficient application more efficient application Learn more
patching4 security management4 configuration management4

4 IDC White Paper, sponsored by Red Hat. “Red Hat Ansible Automation Improves IT Agility and Time to Market,” June 2019. Document #US45090419.

Automate infrastructure workflows | 6

Streamline complete workflows
with a unified automation platform

A unified automation platform is central to effective workflow automation. Automation

platforms deliver a consolidated foundation on which multiple people can automate Automate across your
consistently. They also provide ways to efficiently manage and share automation entire organization
content across your organization. A unified platform allows everyone in your organiza-
IT automation can have profound
tion to participate. While each team can still create automation for their own domain,
impact across your business. Read
all domains are connected into the same automation workflow and strategy. A unified
these e-books to learn how automa-
platform also encourages teams to collaborate and share automation assets, best
tion can help you transform the way
practices, and learnings.
people, processes, and platforms work
There are many automation solutions available, but not all include the capabilities your together, manage your network infra-
organization needs to automate effectively across your entire infrastructure. Look for structure, and simplify your security
automation platforms that offer: operations center:

• The automated enterprise:

Complete support Unify people and processes
Promote IT availability and reliability with platforms that provide
enterprise-grade support, including quality and security testing, • Network automation for
integration, and clear roadmaps. everyone: Modernize your
network with Red Hat Ansible
Automation Platform
Vendor interoperability
Use and automate your preferred infrastructure technologies via • Simplify your security
standard, open interfaces that allow vendors to create modules or operations center
plugins for your automation platform.

Simple adoption
Allow staff across your organization to build and deploy automation
quickly and effectively with simple, human-readable automation
and intuitive tools.

Massive scalability
Deploy automation consistently across your entire IT organization
with a platform that scales across infrastructure, operating systems,
management tools, and user roles.

Agentless deployment
Quickly and securely connect and automate your infrastructure
components without needing to install and maintain an agent
on each device.

Automate infrastructure workflows | 7

Automate your infrastructure with
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

A foundation for building and operating automation services at scale, Red Hat®
Ansible® Automation Platform delivers all the tools and features you need to auto-
mate your infrastructure. It combines a simple, easy-to-read automation language
with a trusted, composable execution environment and security-focused sharing and
collaboration capabilities. Multiple domain teams can use Red Hat Ansible Automation
Platform, allowing you to create, scale, and deploy your automation across your entire
IT organization.
“[Red Hat Ansible
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a single framework that helps you automate all Automation Platform]
aspects of your infrastructure, from servers and network devices to operating systems, is recognized as an
application, and security. Through modules, it connects your existing automation tools
and processes with a common language. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is also outstanding automation
agentless, so you can easily automate components without installing automation soft- and orchestration language
ware on them. Finally, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform includes monitoring and and platform among our
logging capabilities to help you understand and manage how automation is used across
your organization. customer base.”
Joseph Tejal
Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible Automation,
formerly at Datacom

Read the success story

64% of enterprises currently use or plan to use

Ansible as their cloud configuration tool.5

5 Flexera, “2020 Flexera State of the Cloud Report,” April 2020.

Automate infrastructure workflows | 8

Customer success highlight

Siemens
Enhance communication security through automation

Challenge
Siemens is a global technology company focusing on electrification — from power
generation, transmission, and distribution to smart grid solutions and the efficient
application of electrical energy — as well as the areas of medical imaging and labora-
tory diagnostics. The company uses public key infrastructures (PKIs) — a collection of
processes and policies for creating, using, managing, and storing digital certificates
and other secure communications components — across its organization to reliably “We needed more
protect access to sensitive information. Siemens is increasingly using PKIs to also automation, and for this
secure Internet of Things (IoT) communications and now maintains two PKI environ-
ments for these different use cases. To support growing PKI use, the company sought Red Hat Ansible Automation
a more robust automation solution that would help its teams accommodate demand [Platform] was the perfect
while reducing configuration complexity. choice, but we were not
Solution
experts in Ansible... It’s
important to maximize our
To simplify and better automate its PKI environment, Siemens worked closely
with Red Hat Consulting to replace its legacy automation solution with Red Hat IT investment, so we wanted
Ansible Automation. With expert support and training, Siemens’ PKI team is now as much detail as possible
using Ansible Automation Platform to automate manual management tasks and
from Red Hat’s experts.”
improve communications security across the business.
Rufus Buschart
Head of PKI, Siemens

Optimized Ansible for Windows- Improved IT efficiency by Enhanced in-house Ansible expertise with
based security environment automating management tasks dedicated, expert consulting and training

Read the success story

Automate infrastructure workflows | 9

Ready to automate your infrastructure?

Your business relies on your IT infrastructure and applications. IT automation can

save time, improve employee satisfaction, and reduce costs. Red Hat offers a
unified automation platform that connects your IT infrastructure, processes, and
teams to deliver more business value.

Automate your infrastructure with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform:

redhat.com/ansible

Take advantage of IT automation expertise

Red Hat offers services, training, and certification to help you implement infrastructure
automation quickly, effectively, and according to best practices.

Red Hat Services Program: Red Hat Training and Certification:

Automation Adoption Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

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