Automate the entire lifecycle of virtual infrastructure management.
In this blog, we will learn how to automate the entire lifecycle of virtual infrastructure management.
Virtualization and Automation: Enhancing IT Efficiency
Virtualization has long played a crucial role in supporting critical business applications. Initially, it revolutionized IT by improving hardware utilization, streamlining operations, and cutting costs. As a result, virtual infrastructure became an integral part of IT operations and continues to be widely used today for similar reasons.
Many business applications run in virtualized environments, requiring effective management, just like other IT components. However, virtual machines (VMs) are just one piece of the puzzle. A complete infrastructure surrounds them, varying based on application needs. This can include network connections, storage, security tools, identity management, observability solutions, backup systems, cloud instances, and on-premises servers, among other elements.
Managing Virtual Infrastructure Throughout Its Lifecycle
Effective management extends across the entire operational lifecycle—from provisioning and ongoing administration to security monitoring, troubleshooting, and decommissioning unused VMs. This process must cover both VMs and their supporting infrastructure.
Imagine being able to automate and coordinate workflows across teams, such as deploying applications, updating inventories, or integrating security tools. The result? A more efficient, accurate, and consistent process that streamlines operations.
The Benefits of Automation: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Consistency
Leveraging automation across virtual infrastructure significantly boosts efficiency. For example, one organization reduced a complex vendor process from 20 hours to just 30 minutes per VM by implementing the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.
Beyond efficiency, automation enhances consistency and accuracy. Every action taken within your virtual infrastructure follows the same standardized process, regardless of timing or personnel. Additionally, automation logs every task, creating a transparent audit trail for security and compliance purposes.
For organizations facing talent shortages or resource constraints, automation provides a valuable advantage. By eliminating repetitive tasks, teams can focus on strategic projects and engineering challenges that drive business growth.
Automating Virtual Infrastructure Management
Automation can optimize virtual infrastructure management across its full lifecycle, including:
- Provisioning and Configuration – Establish a single source of truth for provisioning new VMs, ensuring compliance with company standards, or enabling self-service VM provisioning based on predefined criteria.
- Orchestration – Automate steps in the provisioning and management process, such as connecting VMs to load balancers, scheduling backups, or updating inventory systems.
- Security and Compliance Management – Quickly integrate VMs into security and identity management tools, perform automated security checks, and respond to alerts in real time.
- Automated Incident Response – Implement automated actions for alerts, such as adjusting storage, gathering diagnostic data for service tickets, or modifying vCPU and memory settings.
- Business Continuity – Streamline disaster recovery processes, including snapshot creation, failover provisioning, and workload migration.
- Infrastructure Automation – Manage network configurations, enforce compliance standards, optimize storage usage, and oversee other key operational factors like application security, database health, and backup solutions.
- Flexible Migration Strategies – Automate the migration of VMs at scale, aligning with evolving business objectives, whether maintaining existing VMs or modernizing workloads for cloud-native environments.
For a deeper dive into how automation can enhance virtual infrastructure management, industry experts have shared insights in an on-demand webinar covering the full lifecycle automation approach.
Enterprise-Wide Automation: Addressing Complex IT Demands
Managing virtual infrastructure is just one aspect of modern IT operations. Organizations must also handle cloud-native applications running in containers, hybrid or multi-cloud deployments, edge computing, IoT applications, and even AI-driven workloads—all of which introduce additional complexities.
An enterprise-wide automation strategy helps IT teams navigate these challenges effectively. By adopting a common automation platform, organizations can integrate and orchestrate processes across different IT environments, breaking down silos and enhancing efficiency.
While automating a single task provides benefits, scaling automation across the entire IT ecosystem maximizes its impact. A combination of an automation-driven culture and a flexible, enterprise-grade platform like Ansible Automation Platform empowers organizations to meet evolving IT demands with confidence.
A recent study by the Futurum Group, sponsored by Red Hat, highlights the importance of automation strategies:
“When developing an enterprise automation strategy, organizations should first conduct a comprehensive assessment of their IT environment. This helps identify outdated systems in need of modernization, pinpoint infrastructure bottlenecks, and uncover areas for optimization. By gaining a holistic understanding of their IT landscape, organizations can align automation initiatives with long-term objectives and maximize their impact.”
By strategically implementing automation, businesses can transform their IT operations, ensuring greater agility, reliability, and efficiency in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
