In today's fast-paced and highly competitive business environment, organizations across industries are increasingly relying on technology to conduct their business and create their products. Process automation means greater precision and less space for human error. Meanwhile, automating more basic tasks can save your company manpower and allows you to assign your staff to more complex problems that require a human touch. Therefore, integrating the latest and greatest that IT has to offer has become more and more vital for every winning company. Naturally, this also opens up opportunities for skilled IT infrastructure professionals.
To keep up with competition and manage complex workflows, tech companies are seeking to streamline operations, enhance efficiency and deliver high-quality software faster. Meanwhile, IT has become increasingly specialized and integrating new systems into existing workflows can be a difficult and time-consuming task for a company that rather wants to focus on its core-business.
As a result, the demand for skilled professionals in the areas of DevOps and infrastructure automation is growing rapidly, as they facilitate the streamlining of your workflow and allow your company to further excel at what you do best. This article explores the significant developments in the IT infrastructure market and highlights what specialists in these domains can do for your company.
IT infrastructure in the modern tech company
The IT infrastructure is the backbone and lifeline of every modern digital business. It includes the complete body of computing, network, workplace systems and data processing components that allow operations to run smoothly. If one of these components malfunctions, production stops or services are seriously impeded.
For example, if your network is down, all of a sudden everyone in the office is locked out of vital systems and information services; and if there’s a bug in the digital workplace software, the cooperation between your on-site and at-home personnel might be halted. Knowing this, it’s easy to see why it’s so important for your company to find the right IT infrastructure professionals to keep your systems in the air and their interaction wrinkle-free.
Previously, IT infrastructure mainly consisted of individual hardware components that were manually connected and maintained: a server, a router and a physical data center allowed staff to run company software services and access essential data on on-site computers.
However, nowadays cloud services have made applications and data accessible to workers anywhere. Fueled by the pandemic, this has opened the doors to hybrid working, thus demanding a more digitized, software-focused IT infrastructure. This is where DevOps and Infrastructure Automation experts come in.
What is DevOps?
DevOps is an approach that merges software development (DEV) and IT operations (Ops) units to create a collaborative environment for software development and implementation. Simply said, it seeks to bring together the team that creates the software, with the team that uses it in practice, through continuous cycles of creation, feedback and adjustment.
Traditionally, the relation between developer and operator was a more or less linear and rigid one, with developers delivering a full end product to the workfloor, only then to find out what aspects needed refinement. DevOps on the other hand, emphasizes communication, collaboration, and integration between development teams and operations teams, resulting in faster software delivery and improved overall efficiency.
By breaking down traditional boundaries and automating processes, DevOps enables organizations to respond quickly to market demands, reduce time to market, and enhance product quality.
What can a DevOps specialist do for my company?
Implementing DevOps into your workflow however, can be tricky as it requires intimate knowledge of every step of both the development and operating phase - from planning, to building, to deploying, to monitoring and back to planning again. With the introduction of cloud-based and hybrid working, it has become even more of a challenge to keep lines short, and maintain interactions between different software tools and professionals from different disciplines free of friction.
DevOps experts are all about integrating and streamlining systems and processes. It’s their job to introduce and maintain the tools and methods that enable collaboration between development and operations professionals to smoothen the software development cycle and ensure that each link in the process benefits optimally from each other’s expertise.
DevOps experts face a two-sided task, as on the one hand, their job demands a broad command of the software tools that are implemented throughout the phases of development and operations to integrate processes. But on the other hand, DevOps experts also need the soft skills to facilitate the communication between cross-functional teams and the analytical skills to troubleshoot the obstacles in the software development life cycle.
What is Infrastructure Automation?
Infrastructure automation complements DevOps by automating the configuration and management of infrastructure resources. In other words, infrastructure automation reduces the need for human involvement in the IT infrastructure as it automates processes and interaction between the different soft- and hardware components in a company's IT infrastructure.
Infrastructure automation involves the use of tools and technologies to abstract and automate infrastructure tasks, such as server provisioning, network configuration, and application deployment. Automation eliminates manual errors, improves scalability, and ensures consistency in processes. This enables organizations to achieve greater reliability and adaptability to changing demands.
What can an infrastructure automation expert do for my company?
An infrastructure automation expert works together with a DevOps specialist on a more zoomed-in, specialized level as he or she seeks to find streamlining solutions for processes in the development and operations process. Whereas a DevOps specialist oversees the whole software development life cycle, the automation expert tries to enhance small parts of it.
An Infrastructure Automation expert is constantly screening processes and reviewing which steps of the process take up much manpower that would be of better use elsewhere. To examine whether a process can be automated, the automation expert constantly reviews predictability of outcomes and repeatability of a task.
Problems with highly foreseeable outcomes are easier to capture in a model and can thus easier be streamlined and automated. Likewise, tasks that are constantly repeated are more valuable to automate, as they can save more manpower in the future. This means the initial investment to make a model or write a code will repay itself quickly, whereas if a task is hardly ever repeated, it might still be more cost-efficient to do it manually.
An IT infrastructure automation specialist knows how to recognize which processes can be automated and possesses intimate knowledge of the tools to do so, thus allowing your company to improve efficiency, reduce cost and achieve the quality that you desire consistently.
Easier, Faster, Better
The adoption of DevOps and infrastructure automation within organizations has become crucial for streamlining operations and enhancing efficiencies. By implementing these practices, tech companies can automate repetitive tasks, optimize resource utilization, and eliminate bottlenecks in the software delivery process. This results in accelerated development cycles, faster time to market, and reduced operational costs. In an era where customer expectations are higher than ever, delivering high-quality software at a rapid pace is crucial for businesses to stay ahead.
Growing demand for Skilled Professionals
As the adoption of DevOps and infrastructure automation becomes increasingly essential for organizations, the demand for professionals skilled in these areas is growing rapidly. Companies are seeking individuals who possess a deep understanding of DevOps principles and expertise in automation tools and technologies.Their expertise allows your organization to achieve higher levels of efficiency, reliability, and innovation.
Amoria Bond: Your Technology Staffing Partner
In this evolving IT infrastructure market, finding the best professionals with the required skills can be a challenging task. This is where Amoria Bond’s European technology staffing specialists can provide you with invaluable support. With our extensive knowledge of the market and vast network of highly skilled candidates, we can help organizations find and connect with top-tier DevOps and infrastructure automation professionals.
At Amoria Bond, we understand the dynamic nature of the IT infrastructure market and the importance of matching the right talent with your company. Get into contact to find out how we can help your company grow.
