Report reveals overinflated opinion of infrastructure automation excellence

Many infrastructure expertise groups consider they’ve mastered infrastructure automation, however the knowledge tells a special story. We commissioned a survey to discover the state of infrastructure automation, and this analysis uncovered a stark hole between notion and actuality. Whereas 45% of organizations consider they’ve achieved a excessive stage of infrastructure automation, solely 14% exhibit the conduct and expertise patterns of infrastructure automation excellence.

This is without doubt one of the illuminating findings of our survey of 413 infrastructure software buy decision-makers and influencers, carried out by Panterra. Full outcomes are detailed in “The State of Infrastructure Automation” report, out there for obtain.

What I discover most compelling in regards to the survey revelations—and what the report addresses intimately—is the essential problem going through expertise decision-makers: balancing the necessity for velocity with the need of management. Within the pursuit of speedy deployment, many groups have sacrificed safety, governance, and operational stability. Essentially the most profitable organizations—these we classify as “Leaders”—have discovered a solution to break away from this “Velocity-Management Paradox,” attaining each velocity and management. Their success provides a blueprint for others to observe.

What Infrastructure Automation Leaders Do That Others Don’t

The report uncovered clear patterns among the many most automation-mature organizations—those that have mastered the Velocity-Management Paradox:

1. Developer Self-Service with Guardrails: Leaders empower builders to deploy infrastructure independently whereas embedding safeguards. Leaders have constructed high-velocity environments the place builders can give attention to constructing relatively than troubleshooting: 61% of Leaders have streamlined workflows and lowered friction, in comparison with 8% of corporations who’re labeled as simply getting began with Infrastructure Automation.
2. Platform Engineering for Consistency: Leaders are 5 occasions extra prone to have applied a platform engineering staff than their less-advanced friends: 29% of Leaders have applied platform groups in comparison with simply 7% of complete respondents. Leaders don’t depend on ad-hoc automation; they set up devoted platform groups to create standardized workflows and reusable templates, making certain consistency throughout environments.
3. Safety as a Constructed-In Basis: Greater than half (58%) of Leaders have minimize safety incidents, and 56% report fewer compliance violations versus 36% of complete respondents. Leaders combine automated safety checks, coverage enforcement, and drift detection into each stage of their automation pipeline. Safety shouldn’t be an afterthought; it’s a steady, proactive course of.
4. Price Optimization as a Precedence: Leaders view price effectivity as important to enterprise success: 51% of Leaders cite price financial savings & ROI as a prime enterprise metric, in comparison with 41% of respondents general. By leveraging automated price estimation and coverage enforcement to curb overprovisioning and forestall waste, 47% of Leaders have efficiently lowered infrastructure prices, in comparison with 32% of all respondents.
5. Orchestration Over Automation: Essentially the most superior groups transcend software adoption. They orchestrate all the infrastructure lifecycle—provisioning, configuration, safety, and governance—right into a unified, automated pipeline. This end-to-end orchestration is what drives true automation maturity and outcomes like these: Main corporations are twice as prone to get infrastructure deployments proper on the primary attempt, 4 occasions extra prone to provision new assets in 4 hours or much less, and 5 occasions extra prone to deploy adjustments in manufacturing each day or a number of occasions a day. In distinction, over 50% of organizations take per week or extra to deploy infrastructure adjustments in manufacturing, and 43% have to rerun their infrastructure deployments greater than 4 occasions to get it proper.

Is Your Group an Automation Chief?

The place are you on the adoption continuum? Your group could also be an Experimenter, testing out some instruments. Or maybe you might be an Adopter, implementing some automation however combating standardization and governance. Extra progressive corporations might be Optimizers, having made vital progress with automated deployments and governance, and focusing now on addressing gaps in safety, compliance and scalability. And bravo to you in case your group is a Chief, with automation, safety, compliance and scalability constructed into each course of.

Ask your self these questions to assist make clear your group’s present standing:

• Are we automating for velocity alone, or are we orchestrating safety, compliance, and value management alongside it?
• How a lot of our infrastructure is really managed by Infrastructure as Code (IaC), and the way are we managing drift?
• Are builders empowered with self-service instruments, or are they nonetheless ready on DevOps and platform groups to unlock progress?
• Is safety embedded from the outset, or can we uncover vulnerabilities after deployment?
• Can we measure success by deployment frequency alone, or can we additionally measure by effectivity, price financial savings, and threat discount?

Find out how to Obtain Infrastructure Automation Excellence

Right here’s the perfect information that our research reveals: Any group can obtain infrastructure automation excellence by adopting a deliberate, strategic strategy. Endeavor to do these 5 issues:

1. Benchmark Your Maturity: Start with an trustworthy evaluation. Use out there self-assessment instruments to grasp the place you stand on the automation maturity curve. Recognizing gaps is step one towards enchancment.
2. Shift Left on Safety & Compliance: Combine safety and compliance checks early in your infrastructure planning and lifecycle. Automated validation processes forestall points from reaching manufacturing, lowering threat and minimizing downtime.
3. Stability Velocity with Governance: Foster a tradition the place velocity and safety usually are not competing priorities however complementary targets. Empower builders by means of self-service whereas establishing clear insurance policies and automatic guardrails.
4. Standardize Via Platform Engineering: Centralize automation efforts below a platform staff that aligns instruments, workflows, and greatest practices throughout the group. This staff ought to function an enabler, not a gatekeeper.
5. Measure What Issues: Transfer past deployment velocity as the only metric. Observe price effectivity, safety incidents, and infrastructure stability. A balanced scorecard strategy fosters sustainable automation progress.

True infrastructure automation management shouldn’t be about shifting quick—it’s about shifting quick with certainty. To realize this, Leaders put money into processes and staff constructions that guarantee automation is each agile and safe.

From Experimentation to Excellence

Wherever you might be on the automation continuum, you’ll inevitably encounter the Velocity-Management Paradox alongside the best way. The excellent news is that the blueprint for achievement is now clearer than ever. Leaders have proven that it’s doable to ship on the velocity of innovation with out sacrificing management. 

We’d love to listen to extra about your automation journey and share how we may help. Come see us at KubeCon, sales space N560. And be part of us for OpenTofu Day on April 1, the day earlier than the primary occasion kicks off.

And don’t overlook to obtain a replica of the analysis report and reap the benefits of our free evaluation software. See you at KubeCon!