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Automation and Orchestration: Page 2 of 2

There are two ways to implement orchestration. One is to develop your own software, or find open source systems, that automate your operational needs. If you look at early cloud providers like Amazon, they have automated their service using a wide range of existing software and custom development to build a uniquely valuable capability. All steps of server setup, configuration, ownership and service recovery are fully automated. Orchestration extends beyond server, storage and networking configuration. Cloud services orchestrate the deployment and configuration of content caching, VPN capabilities, memcached functions, high availability features and more. The customer selects a service, and the cloud provider's orchestration carries out a large number of automation tasks to deliver the finished service.

The second response is to buy an off-the-shelf orchestration platform from a vendor, thus paying someone else for the bulk of development. Orchestration platforms are a packaged software response to the same problem by providing 80% of the functionality needed in the software and the final 20% is customized to the organization's exact requirements. The orchestration platform tools provide all the underlying functions, and it's just the process that needs to be arranged and a few rough edges sorted out.

Most orchestration platforms consist of modules, workflows, and integration points to other software and management platforms that address each infrastructure discipline and manage the automation elements of that technology. Functions like virtual server deployment, OS scripted install, network configuration and storage configuration are just the starting points. You can orchestrate application deployment and all the associated dependencies by presenting a form for someone to fill out with the required details and let the orchestration system handle the rest.

It sounds like a management utopia: Automate the process and release resources for strategic work and lower overall costs. Software automation has been around since computers were invented, making our processes repeatable and consistent--software that knows exactly what to do, and that can do it according to plan whenever needed. Surely, it's a managers' dream.

But automation has a history of failed implementations and seemingly insurmountable challenges to overcome. In the next article, I'll look at the darker side of automation and orchestration and discuss the obstacles to adoption. Finally, we will look at ideas to mitigate risk and fast-ramp an implementation so that the benefits of orchestration can be realized.

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