In this article, you will learn about efficient practices in overcoming IT automation challenges. Organizations of all sizes can struggle with implementing and maintaining effective automation processes. While automation promises to streamline operations and boost efficiency, it often introduces unexpected hurdles that can derail even your most well-planned initiatives.

Within the configuration management space, people often distinguish between agent-based and agent-less approaches. In short, an agent-based solution means that you install a software agent to run in the background / periodically on the system. That software agent then makes changes to the system as desired, and also commonly communicates over the network to send and receive updates, policy, commands, scripts, data, etc.

In software development, even common IT operations tasks require specialized skills. Collaboration between specialized teams is the driving force of DevOps, more than any tooling or workflow. But self-service automation becomes valuable when common, routine tasks and processes start to restrict developers and burden operations teams.

The telecom landscape is undergoing a transformation unlike anything we’ve seen before, and at the heart of this epic shift is the Radio Access Network (RAN). What used to be a quiet, behind-the-scenes player in mobile communications has now become the backbone of modern connectivity—powering everything from the phone in your pocket to entire smart cities.

Network automation has become a game-changer for businesses that rely on complex networks. By automating repetitive tasks, companies can improve their network efficiency, reduce human errors, and ultimately save time and costs. That's why network automation tools are becoming essential for companies that want to maintain their competitiveness.

Ever need to visualize the data your working with? storejson() to the rescue! Let’s re-visit our example for sys.os_release from Feature Friday: Special variables: So, we saw the value of a single key, but if we don’t know what keys are available it can be useful to render the JSON representation. The with attribute in combination with storejson() provides a convenient way to visualize the JSON representation of structured data in CFEngine.

Automating the monitoring process for a huge amount of servers, virtual machines, applications, services, private and public clouds is a main driver for users when they decide to use Icinga. In fact, monitoring large environments is not a new demand for us at all. We experienced this challenge in tandem with many corporations for many years.

Businesses heavily rely on IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms to ensure the smooth functioning of critical services. While these platforms offer excellent incident management capabilities—tracking, organizing, and reporting incidents—they often fall short when it comes to fast, reliable resolution. Enter incident resolution automation, a game-changer in optimizing ITSM investments.