Automation in IT

Automation

So what exactly is automation it is the process of replacing a manual step with one that happens automatically although we may not realize it we reap the benefits of automation every day. For example, think of a traffic light it regulates the flow of vehicles at an intersection a traffic light only requires human intervention when it needs repairs or maintenance the automatic regulation of traffic means that humans don't have to stand at the intersection manually signaling whether or not the car should proceed instead people can focus their energy on more complex creative or difficult tasks like focusing on where you're driving another great thing about traffic lights they won't get tired bored or accidentally display one color of light when they need another this highlights another benefit of automation consistency let's face it as humans raw flawed make mistakes.

A human performing the same task hundreds of times will never be as consistent as a machine doing the same thing but for all of its advantages automation isn't a solution to every situation some tasks just aren't suited for automation because they might require a degree of creativity or the flexibility that automatic systems just can't provide for more complicated or less frequently executed tasks creating the automation may be more effort or cost than the automation is worth let's consider the process of getting a haircut what would it take to automate the actions of cutting hair with a machine height of the client, the shape of the head the current length and style of hair and the new desired haircut would all need to be taken into account when designing the automatic system extensive testing would need to be performed to ensure the safety of the client and the quality of the haircut although this validation can be subjective finally the creativity and the skill of a trained specialist would need to be replicated in this case the cost to develop and implement the automation is probably not worth the benefits that an automatic haircut would provide so the task remains a manual process in.

You can write a chef recipe or script to automatically provision a web server but what if your web server depends on having a database server running SQL installed first or you need to provision multiple web servers at the same time along with their corresponding databases if you have a task that requires more granular control or isn't covered by the use cases offered by the configuration management system the idea of custom automation using scripts comes into play in Information Technology the automation of these tasks is commonly accomplished by encoding the logic to perform the task into a program or script don't worry we'll talk about both these things later on in this module anyway the script is then run on a computer that follows the directions it finds there to accomplish the task automation is a super powerful tool when used in the right place at the right time can save time reduce errors increase consistency and provide a way to centralize solutions and mistakes making them much easier to tackle and fix but before we can dive into automation we're going to need to talk a little bit about programming and how it ties into automation in the workplace.

Thank you guys for being with me till the end of the blog. See you in the next blog stay blessed. 

JazakALLAH!