Solving tool overload, one automation step at a time

Solving tool overload, one automation step at a time Key insights from the report How unified automation and AI can propel your operations Additional resources Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform | Product Trial About the author Caroline Smith More like this A 5-step playbook for unified automation and AI AI ambitions meet automation reality: The case for a unified automation platform Technically Speaking | Taming AI agents with observability You Can’t Automate Cultural Change | Code Comments Keep exploring Browse by channel Automation Artificial intelligence Open hybrid cloud Security Edge computing Infrastructure Applications Virtualization Share Modern IT departments are wrestling with a sprawling array of automation and operations tools, often numbering in the dozens or even hundreds. This complexity makes efficient management and integration a significant obstacle, especially as organizations accelerate their investment in hybrid IT ecosystems, cloud services, and cloud-native application modernization. To help overcome this "tool sprawl" and its impact on productivity, enterprises are working to establish a common environment for orchestrating and managing critical IT processes—a "unified IT automation platform. " To understand the business imperatives driving this shift, we asked S&P Global Market Intelligence 451 Research to conduct a comprehensive survey with 900 business and IT decision-makers and influencers. These leaders provided their perspectives on the current state of IT automation, anticipated changes, and the implications of relying on so many different tools. These insights also helped shape our understanding of the definition and expectations for a unified IT automation platform. Automation challenges: The journey to stable and reliable IT automation isn't without its challenges. The top hurdles identified by respondents were complex and lengthy implementation processes , cited by a substantial 58%, closely followed by integration with existing systems and software, at 51%. Budget constraints (44%) and skills shortages (40%) also pose obstacles. Excess IT tooling: The pervasive challenge of tool sprawl is evident, with 42% of respondents reporting the use of 26-50 different tools, with 28% reporting more than 50 tools in their toolbox. This fragmentation underscores the need for enhanced tool interoperability. Encouragingly, a significant two-thirds (69%) of enterprises have already established platform engineering programs or are actively committing resources to integrate these tools through a unified orchestration layer.