The past 12 months have seen a change in how companies perceive automation and its benefits for DevOps and security teams.
Last year, more than three-quarters of companies * wanted to be able to automate the day-to-day manual tasks of their Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems for managing events and information security. But many of them are reluctant to take the plunge because they don’t have the skills available internally.
But with the growing skills shortage in the IT industry, companies have no choice but to embrace automation. In the era of digital transformation, it is a necessary step for companies, regardless of the number of experts that it mobilizes.
Here are five tips for a smooth adoption of automation.
1.Secure The Support Of The Whole Company
When preparing to implement automation, be sure to get buy-in from across the company. It’s a project that involves a big investment, especially in terms of the cost of writing the code, testing it, and keeping it up to date, so everyone should understand the benefits. The risk is great if not that some in the company question the need to allocate a budget to the project, which could feed hesitation and put the project on hold.
Evaluate Your Tools
Once you have everyone’s support, start by reducing the share of non-automated technologies. Whenever a solution can’t be automated, ask yourself if the business really needs it. It’s probably time to invest in new tools, too.
And whenever you are considering a tool, think about who is going to use it. Integrate training into the purchasing process and plan cross-training to circulate information.
3.Opt For Reusable Code
The automation often starts writing scripts for specific tasks. These tasks are then part of larger processes. As the original code was aimed at a very specific task, it needs to be rewritten to meet the next challenge.
By favoring code reuse, redundancy is eliminated. Think of tasks as functions or large sets of tasks as libraries.
Others can then reuse them without knowing the original code in detail. The projects will then gain in speed since the colleagues will be able to use each other’s work to tend towards a greater objective.
4.Simplify Data Exchange
For automation to work, you need components that communicate with other parties, whether between hybrid clouds and on-premises or between different vendors and tools.
If you are designing APIs or webhooks for your projects, then data can simply be exchanged without fundamental knowledge of the code (or other subtleties).
Containers And Serverless Hosting
There are multiple ways to run and host your code and automation. Take inspiration from the way modern apps are created and run. Containers are separate environments, which may be suitable for automation, as they will not be affected by changes to the OS and other things that are not necessarily under your control. Server-based and serverless technologies can also simplify your code execution.
The automation of security must be a force multiplier, making life easier for security teams and DevOps.
By following these tips, businesses will be able to reap the benefits of automation and digital transformation, in addition to reducing the cost of change and the risk of human error.