It used to be conventional wisdom, you automate one process at a time to minimize risk and generate quick wins. “Start small and dream big,” they all said.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are now officially past the “small” portion of digital transformation. The time has come for DX leaders to abandon a miopic approach to process automation and not just “dream big” but embrace a holistic, enterprise level approach to automation.

At this point in time, many organizations have found themselves drowning in digital complexity and technical debt. In fact, a 2021 report by Forrester lays it out succinctly, “tactical, cost-focused automation disconnected from digital transformation goals” has resulted in:

• Siloed automation (what Forrester refers to as “Islands of automation”)
• Overreliance on a single automation technology
• A short-term approach to automation whereby “pockets of inefficiency are patched up” but long-term modernizations investments are avoided 

What is an Automation Fabric?

Similar to “data fabric” and “hyperautomation,” the term “automation fabric” refers to a systemic, enterprise-level approach to automation whereby multiple technologies are fully integrated into one cohesive system. In other words, it combines process automation with IT infrastructure automation to connect processes and orchestrate work across the entire enterprise. The goal is to not only reduce complexity and deliver seamless user experiences, but get one step closer to building an autonomous enterprise. 

As Forrester's Principal Analyst, Leslie Joseph, explained in an interview last year, “post-pandemic trends point towards a convergence of automation technologies such as RPA, DPA, integration (iPaaS), low-code software, machine learning, conversational AI, analytics and process intelligence. As these technologies overlap and criss-cross into each other, they are beginning to converge into a broad weave — an “automation fabric” — which combines digital workers and AI agents such as chatbots with process and data workflows, connected through event-based and integration-centric orchestration. The automation fabric forms a superstructure for enterprises to rethink their products, services, operations and business model; to shrink the distance between workers and work; and unlock opportunities for digital differentiation.”

What is Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC)?

One of the most important enablers of the automation fabric is Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), an IT practice that codifies and manages underlying IT infrastructure as software. In short, this allows organizations to manage their IT infrastructure using configuration files.

As defined by G2, “Infrastructure as code (IaC) uses programming languages or automation tools to provision, manage, and deploy servers, storage, databases, and networking components. Once deployed, the infrastructure can be managed, observed, and repaired with little to no human interaction.” To elaborate, organizations use IaC to:

• Automate infrastructure provisioning, deployment, configuration and management
• Orchestrate the operation of all infrastructure components including hardware, software, cloud networks, containers, databases, etc.
• Enable full visibility across all interconnected infrastructure components and systems