Leveraging Data Center Automation to Fuel Innovation

By implementing and leveraging automation, organizations are able to achieve greater operational efficiency, scalability, reliability and cost-effectiveness while greatly reducing manual effort and potential errors. This results in reduced administrative costs as the patching and installation efforts can decrease from hours/days to minutes by leveraging automation that is managed through a single dashboard. In doing so, it empowers data center administrators with the ability to focus on strategic tasks and innovation, driving business growth and competitiveness.

Automation in the data center addresses a wide range of specific use cases that customers are looking to solve. For instance, organizations often seek to optimize resource allocation and improve server utilization. By leveraging automation and orchestration platforms and configuration management frameworks such as Red Hat Ansible or VMware Aria Automation (formerly vRealize), businesses can automate the provisioning, configuration and management of servers, resulting in increased efficiency and cost savings. Additionally, automating storage management using software-defined storage tools enables dynamic allocation and efficient utilization of storage resources. This not only reduces costs but also improves data backup/recovery processes. Virtualization platforms such as VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V, along with automation tools, allow businesses to automate the deployment and scaling of virtual machines, enabling rapid resource provisioning and workload optimization. These automation approaches have demonstrated impressive outcomes, with companies reporting up to 80% reduction in server provisioning time, 50% cost savings in storage management and significant improvements in overall data center performance and agility.

It is one of the reasons according to a new survey by Gartner, Inc. that predicts that by 2025, 70% of organizations will implement structured automation to deliver efficiency, flexibility, robust security and compliance as well as cost savings. That being said, engaging with a client to move towards automation involves careful planning, effective communication and a strategic approach. That is why Computacenter has developed specific Solution Capabilities that focus on assisting our clients in their transition to automation.

These Solution Capabilities include:

• Technology Briefing – Promote the benefits and the technology platforms for leveraging automation.
• Current State Assessment Identify where automation can bring the most value.
• Advisory Planning Session – Develop a roadmap for automation with clear, measurable objectives.
• Design Planning Session – Identify the approach that develops the business case outlining the potential return on investment (ROI).
• Implementation Service – Create and execute an actionable Implementation Plan resulting in a successful deployment supported by Run Books and structured knowledge transfer.
• Adoption and Optimization Services – Continuously monitor and measure the impact of automation on the client's infrastructure while identifying additional areas for improvement.

Through a structured, customized and collaborative approach, Computacenter’s Data Center Practice has successfully implemented automation projects with many of our clients. To learn more, contact our experts at Computacenter for an in-depth discussion on how data center automation can help your organization realize operational efficiencies and achieve desired business outcomes.