Managing and operating your cloud resources is tedious and time-consuming. For example, you must implement load balancing so incoming network traffic is distributed for optimum network performance. You also need to ensure that cloud resources are provisioned properly so you don’t pay for idle resources. These and other tasks can divert your IT staff’s time away from high-value projects. Thankfully, many cloud tasks can be taken off the hands of your IT team, thanks to cloud automation.

What is cloud automation? 

Cloud automation involves numerous services and tools to fulfill cloud management and operations tasks that would take IT staff considerable time and effort to do manually. This strategy can be used on any cloud environment, be it public, private, or hybrid.

How does cloud automation help businesses?

Automation gets a bad rap in popular media as the thing that will give rise to an artificial intelligence that will one day subjugate humanity. All it really does, however, is help workers — and the organization as a whole — be more productive and get the most out of cloud technology. With that in mind, here are some of the biggest ways that cloud automation benefits your business:

• Increases efficiency and reduces the risk of human error
  Often, cloud-related tasks are laborious, repetitive, and mind-numbing in nature, making them prone to human error. To illustrate, manually configuring your cloud can lead to misconfigurations that can cause performance and security issues, as well as downtime.
   
  However, by using cloud orchestration tools, developers can codify routine processes so that cloud automation software and tools can repeatedly execute these tasks without error and with little to no human intervention. Automating configuration, for instance, ensures optimal efficiency and minimizes vulnerabilities in your cloud infrastructure.
• Frees up IT staff to create more value
  When IT staff manually handle your cloud day in and day out, they could start to feel like they’re running in a hamster wheel. That is, they do something over and over, exert much effort, but don’t really get anywhere. They don’t learn new skills, face new challenges, or see opportunities for career growth.
   
  By implementing cloud automation, you free up your valuable IT professionals to engage in innovative IT projects. These projects not only harness and hone their skills but can also result in a considerable return on investment for your company.
• Makes your business more agile (i.e., respond faster to changes)
  Thanks to automation, you can scale your business up or down more quickly depending on current circumstances or looming market predictions. For instance, if the number of employees working remotely in your organization has grown, then you can migrate workloads to the cloud. And when business booms and you need to hire more remote staff, you’ll require more cloud resources to support them, too. Cloud automation makes it easier to do so.
   
  Cloud automation is also useful when you have websites that depend on cloud servers. In particular, you can automate cloud provisioning to account for changes in these websites’ demand for cloud resources. Manual allocation of resources can result in wastage, low performance, and problems with cost, but automating the process helps prevent these issues.
• Makes your business more secure and more compliant with regulations
  Cloud automation also covers cybersecurity via tools that automatically detect security gaps, patch these up, and neutralize threats that may have already gotten through.
   
  Data regulations compliance can also be a pain in the neck, especially since rules and regulations may change over time. By updating your cloud orchestration tools, you can easily make compliance consistent across the organization and spread awareness of policy changes.
   
  Partner up with SimplyClouds to implement cloud automation and make the most of your cloud. Talk to our cloud experts today to learn more.