In this lesson,
we will explore the numerous benefits
of automation and orchestration.
Automation and orchestration are powerful tools
that can revolutionize the efficiency, security,
and overall effectiveness of your organization's operations.
There are seven main benefits
of using automation and orchestration.
Increase efficiency and time savings, enforcing baselines,
implementing standard infrastructure configurations,
scaling in a more secure manner,
increased employee retention,
faster reaction times,
and being a workforce multiplier.
Now let's take a look at each of these benefits.
First, we have increased efficiency and time savings.
One of the most evident advantages of automation
and orchestration is the significant reduction
in manual tasks,
and this translates into more time being saved
for your employees.
Repetitive and time consuming processes
such as system patching, software deployment,
and data backups can be automated
to run seamlessly without any human intervention.
By using automation and orchestration,
you can free up valuable human resources
as well as reducing the risk of human errors.
This helps to ensure that we have a more reliable
and consistent outcome in our processes
by relying on automation and orchestration
instead of using our legacy manual processes.
Second, we have the enforcement of baselines,
automation and orchestration
enable our organization center for security
and compliance baselines consistently across
their entire enterprise network and infrastructure.
By defining standardized configurations and policies,
automation and orchestration tools can ensure
that systems are always aligned
with our industry's best practices
and any other pertinent regulatory requirements.
This approach minimizes vulnerabilities
and reduces the likelihood of a security breach occurring.
Third, we have the implementation
of standard infrastructure configurations.
Maintaining a standardized infrastructure configuration
is essential for security and operational stability.
Automation and orchestration help to facilitate the creation
and enforcement of standard configurations
to ensure that all of your systems
are set up consistently.
If any deviation
from the established standards are detected,
orchestrations can be utilized
to trigger automated corrective actions
to further enhance the security
and reliability of your infrastructure.
Fourth, we can utilize scaling in a more secure manner.
As organizations grow and expand,
they often encounter challenges related
to scaling their IT infrastructure securely.
Automation and orchestration
provide the means to scale resources up
or down dynamically while adhering to security protocols.
Whether it's provisioning new virtual machines,
adding network resources,
or adjusting access controls,
these tools ensure that scalability is achieved
without compromising security.
For example, when using the cloud
in the scalability and elasticity,
we must rely on automation
and orchestration to perform most
of our scaling operations in a secure manner
since a human cannot deploy new virtual servers
as quickly or securely as an automation
or orchestration could.
Fifth, we have increased employee retention.
Now, this is a less obvious benefit of automation
and orchestration since most of us think of automation
and orchestration as something
that will replace our human employees.
And this is one of the reasons
some employees fight against automation and orchestration.
But automation and orchestration actually has been proven
to have a positive impact on your employee's
overall satisfaction and retention levels.
By automating repetitive
and mundane tasks,
organizations empower their employees
to focus on more strategic
and creative aspects of their roles,
which leads to more job fulfillment.
This makes the work more engaging
and also reduces the risk of burnout,
which is a large factor
that contributes to higher employee retention rates.
Yes, automation and orchestration
can replace some of our workforce,
but those that remain are happier
since they're doing the work that really matters.
Instead of completing menial
and boring tasks that should have simply
been automated anyway.
Six, we have increased reaction times
by using automation and orchestration.
In the ever-evolving landscape
of cybersecurity threats,
it's important that you can react to incidents rapidly.
Automation and orchestration enables organizations
to respond more quickly to security incidents and anomalies
since these systems are never distracted, tired,
or on vacation.
Intrusion detection, threat analysis
and incident response can be all automated
to provide real-time alerts
to execute predefined response actions
using either a simple automation
or a more complex orchestration process.
When it comes to these faster reaction times,
they can really become the difference
between mitigating a threat
and suffering a significant data breach,
because detection and response times
are always a major factor in
how severe a security breach will become.
Seven, we have the benefit of being a workforce multiplier,
automation and orchestration act as a workforce multiplier
by augmenting the capabilities of your existing staff.
With these tools in place,
a smaller team can manage
and secure a larger and more complex infrastructure.
This not only reduces the need for extensive staffing,
but also optimizes resource allocation
that can lead to cost savings.
In most organizations, our workforce
and labor costs are the single largest expense that we have.
So anytime our organizations can replace a human
with an automation
or orchestration that can produce the same
or higher level of quality,
this will save us time
and money in the long run.
Overtime, the cost of using automation usually goes down,
but over that same period of time,
the cost to conduct a manual process will increase
as labor rates tend to go up overtime.
Now, I know this is something
that worries a lot of people
because they're afraid that their job will be replaced
with an automation, orchestration, or robotic process,
but these type of technological changes
to our everyday work
have been happening repeatedly throughout history
and will continue to occur.
So instead of fighting automations and orchestrations,
you're better off embracing them
and learning how to become an automation orchestration
or robotic process engineer
to take advantage of this strategic shift
in the way we work in our modern society.
Now, let's take a quick look at the benefits
automation and orchestration and action
during a incident response
in a fictitious financial organization.
This institution just detected
that a cybersecurity incident may have occurred
in which multiple accounts were compromised simultaneously.
Without automation and orchestration,
the incident response team would need to
manually investigate each compromise account,
identify the root cause,
and then apply corrective measures.
However, with automation
and orchestration in place,
the incident response process becomes streamlined.
Automated tools continuously monitor network traffic
and user activity to flag suspicious behavior.
When an incident is detected,
orchestration can then take over
and order to isolate the affected accounts,
collect forensic data from the victimized systems,
and initiate a predefined incident response playbook.
As a result, the organization's overall reaction time
is drastically reduced.
Instead of hours or days
of manual investigation and response,
the organization can contain the incident
within just a few minutes.
This not only prevents further damage,
but also minimizes the impact on affected customers
and the organization's reputation.
So remember, when it comes to the benefits of automation
and orchestration,
remember that they can both bring about
transformative advantages
that go well beyond just giving you
increased levels of efficiency.
These tools empower your organization to enforce standards,
scale securely, retain talent,
react swiftly to threats,
and multiply the capabilities of your current workforce.
As cybersecurity continues to involve,
automation and orchestration will play
an increasingly vital role in
ensuring that resilience
and success of organizations in the digital age
by empowering your organization
to thrive in a rapidly changing landscape where speed,
efficiency, and security are paramount.