Everything You Need to Know About Cloud Automation in 2022

The cloud has changed the way we work. But it hasn't changed everything: certain industries still require onsite IT support. Businesses that depend on legacy systems, like manufacturing or banking, are often left scrambling for solutions. As technology evolves and progresses, the need to have a plan in place will become more crucial. 

To make your life easier when it comes to running a business, you can use a service known as cloud automation. It is a service where you can use applications from the cloud to automate various things. Let's check out what cloud automation is.

What Is Cloud Automation?

Cloud automation involves using cloud-based services and tools that make it easy to automate tasks and processes in your business. Automation allows you to perform repetitive tasks without taking the time to input them into your system for each iteration. You can spend more time doing other things like marketing and sales or getting customer feedback about your products or services.

For example, if you are a business that uses Salesforce, you may have certain processes requiring manual input into Salesforce. But you would like them to be done automatically. Cloud automation allows you to do just that. Automation can also automate tasks on other cloud platforms such as Office 365 and Gmail.

Here are some of the common tasks that can automate with the help of cloud automation:

• You can automate administrative tasks such as database backups, server configuration changes, and software patch deployments.
• Ensuring that your website is always up and running, both on desktop and mobile devices.
• Managing a warehouse floor, including inventory management and order processing.
• Managing a call center or customer service team.
• Automating processes for user support, marketing, and social media management.

Benefits of Cloud Automation

1. Reduced Effort and Time

Cloud automation allows you to build a system that runs automatically, requiring no human intervention. It means you don't have to worry about manually making or maintaining any system part. You can focus on what matters most to your business without worrying about IT administration.

Cloud automation can help you to reduce the amount of time and effort required to complete tasks. It also allows you to free up resources to focus on other areas within your organization.

2. More Efficient Workflows

Cloud automation tools make it easier for developers to work across multiple platforms. They can use different tools individually rather than various tools for each project. You can use an automated script or tool to create an application in your cloud environment.

Other developers can use that same script or tool on different projects without setting up another tool instance. It makes the workflows more efficient across the organizations.

Tests are extensively used to validate software applications. However, testing frameworks are also required to automate and standardize test development. If not defined properly, software testing frameworks can hamper the ability to perform tests.

It can negatively impact the ability to deliver quality products on time. The Guidewire testing framework is designed to help alleviate this issue.

The Guidewire testing solution allows for rapid application development for both the functional and automation testing requirements within Guidewire applications. It also includes creating new functional tests, enhancing existing tests, and creating new automated tests using our GWScript scripting tool.

The GWScript scripting tool allows non-programmers to create automated test scripts without learning to program. It also enables behavior-driven development(BDD) for more accurate results. BDD can help those using Agile to create a better outcome for their projects and clients.

BDD is a way of working that focuses on how the client wants a feature to behave. With this, there is a greater chance that the project's desired outcomes will be met. It also makes creating a more predictable process easier than having so many unknowns that come with codes and code issues.

4. Increased Security

The cloud can greatly increase efficiency but has some hidden security risks. If you're not careful, your data could be at risk. Automation is the key to keeping your cloud services secure. Automation allows companies to monitor and manage their systems in real-time. It ensures that they're operating as intended and preventing potential issues before they become an issue.

When automation is used, it can monitor everything from resource usage to security issues. You don't have to worry about whether or not your cloud service is running properly. 

The ability to prevent certain problems in advance also makes it easier to deal with them when they occur. It also helps ensure that data stays safe from unauthorized access during an attack or ransomware.

5. Improved Backup Processes

Backups are essential because they help you recover your computer system if something goes wrong. However, there are different backups, such as offsite and onsite backups. An external service provider performs offsite backups. While onsite backups are performed by a third-party service provider with access to your computer system.

The cloud can automate certain processes like email archiving and encryption. Email archiving stores emails so you can access them later without going through each email individually. Encryption helps protect sensitive information from being read by unauthorized users or hackers who want to steal it.

Drawbacks

1. Lack of Standardization

Not all cloud providers are created equal. They may use different platforms or data formats. This makes it difficult to compare their capabilities and costs across providers. And even if you can compare apples-to-apples, there's no guarantee that your chosen cloud automation tool will work with the rest of your enterprise's systems and applications.

2. Lack of Integration With Existing Tools

Cloud automation tools can't replace everything. They're just one part of an overall strategy for automating IT processes. You'll need to integrate them with other tools to get the most out of them. But that takes time and money on top of what you're already spending on cloud automation.

4. Lack of Data Control

One of the biggest drawbacks of cloud automation is the lack of control over your data. You can't always know what's happening with your cloud data. For example, you may have a file that's stored on Google Drive, and you want to access it from another social media site. You'll need to copy the file to your new site manually if the file is stored in the cloud.

This process can be time-consuming. So cloud automation would be ideal for this scenario. However, suppose you're working with sensitive data or personal information. In that case, you should probably avoid using cloud automation in favor of another method like manual backups or encryption before storing it in the cloud.

Final Thoughts

By 2022, cloud automation will be as important and commonplace as smartphones in 2018. Cloud automation will change the way businesses and individuals interact with their data. Automation will allow people to do things they never thought possible.

A cloud-based system would be able to automate things that a person could never do manually. For example, if someone wanted to back up their terabyte hard drive, a machine system could read that information. It will send it back onto an external hard drive, and then delete it from the original hard drive.