What Are the Benefits of NoOps?

Total NoOps – the concept of completely automated IT processes that do not require human intervention – will never happen however is it desirable? This article will explain the way NoOps operates and outlines its advantages and disadvantages.

NoOps, which is short for no operations refers to an IT environment where a lot of the processes required to control, optimize and secure IT applications and services can be automated or abstracted or executed by an individual other than a traditional centralized operation unit. NoOps is a vague concept, with a variety of vendors, analysts and clients employing it to define different levels of automation and in addition to the IT components it is applied to, and what organizations are given the IT operations tasks.

According to Paul Nashawaty, senior analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, NoOps is “full automation, and abstracting the infrastructure layer, rendering it unnoticeable and eliminates the need for an operational or infrastructure group to oversee it. This means that you don’t require any human capital for managing the infrastructure layer as it’s completely automated, and tedious tasks being removed.” Nashawaty believes that as low as 10% of companies are at this stage of total automation.

NoOps could refer to that the shift responsibility for IT operation responsibility over to an internal department or DevOps department, or an external service provider like a cloud provider, according to Roy Illsley, chief analyst of IT operations and ecosystem at market research firm Omdia.

But, this model implies that “you do have an operations department” claims Nashawaty. “It’s being transferred to a cloud provider.” Nashawaty prefers to consider NoOps being “a self-service model that lets people who are developers, the business unit, are able to offer the resources they need without the need to contact operational departments.” These uncertainties make NoOps a controversial concept that could cause opposition or anger from those in the operations field who fear that it could jeopardize their job.

NoOps could be viewed as the outcome of the automation based on policies implemented through initiatives that target other aspects of IT infrastructure, like DataOps, AIOps and DevSecOps. While some companies or customers claim to have accomplished it, other argue that the reality of NoOps is a fully computerized IT environment that does not require human involvement is either impossible or not desirable.

Some others suggest NoOps may mean reducing the central IT department, and transferring more of the responsibilities locally-based business groups or teams who manage IT operations as well as the creation and security of the services and applications they consider most important.

What is the purpose of NoOps?

NoOps is built on automated, policy-based processes that are triggered by IT or business-related events to ensure that applications and services are run efficiently, effectively and safely at the lowest cost.

The creation of highly automated IT infrastructure “encompasses microservices, APIs for every kind of infrastructure and the integration of automation into it everything,” says Forrester. The implementation for infrastructure-as-code (through tools like scripts that automate setting and administration) blurs the distinction between infrastructure and application. It could also involve automatic self-healing of the application’s environment.

NoOps should be based on DevOps principles , such as making changes in smaller and frequent increments, rather than making changes that are deployed within a set timeframe and restricting accessibility to commands which allow people to potentially misconfigure systems, advises Forrester. Also, it recommends testing, taking note of the best practices for optimizing IT infrastructure components regularly and avoiding custom configurations which are hard to automate.

Additionally, Forrester recommends pairing sense-and-adapt automation with advanced analytics in order to identify failures swiftly and also monitoring the effects of automated processes and changing them as needed. “The final thing you’d like to do is launch an untested automation system and then forget about it,” According to Forrester. Be aware of its actions and the results and “[u]se this information to enhance the technology.”

What are the advantages of NoOps?

In the event that it’s implemented, NoOps does not just reduce IT management costs, but also lets businesses react more quickly and efficiently to the changing demands by bringing new products and services to market swiftly and effectively. The process of automating and outsourcing IT operations tasks could make it easier for staff to concentrate on higher-value tasks like the development of new products and services.

This greater flexibility for IT professionals is one of the most significant advantages of NoOps. It is evident in the way that hiring patterns are conducted according to Nashawaty. Recent ESG survey found that over the coming year over two-thirds of respondents are planning to employ IT generalists, who are employed to address a variety of requirements for business, rather than specialists in particular fields of IT.

What are the disadvantages of NoOps?

One of the obstacles to more completely automated management of IT for NoOps as per the 2021 Forrester Research report, are organizational cultures that deter the risks that come with the introduction of new automated management tools and the failure of previous attempts to transform the IT process.

Companies can also fail due to automating processes that are flawed as well as “mass producing” mistakes by constructing inadequate scripts to control the configuration of thousands or hundreds of servers and various infrastructure elements, according to In the Forrester report.

“If you don’t have the right rules to use AI it is possible to introduce mistakes in the automation process,” says Nashawaty. “If you’re using machine-learning or AI to control the operations without any human involvement,” the business lacks information about how these rules are being implemented or if they need to be changed.

There are some concerns about job losses that are caused by NoOps might be justifiable. Forrester estimates that one-third of infrastructure and operation (I&O) positions will go away and one-third of the current employees are “passionate advocates for change who are willing to create and automate themselves to create new and more efficient jobs,” another group who will sit and watch what the other group does while a third that won’t be able acquire the new skills needed in the NoOps environment, or who refuse to change and be forced to leave the company.

“The biggest drawback is that when you stop using these capabilities, you’re likely to not be able to get them back,” says Illsley, who believes that instead of trying to eliminate the IT operations component, look at it as an inevitable cost of business even when it does not differentiate the company from its rivals.

What are some examples Of NoOps Toolkits?

Nearly any IT management, monitoring , or automation technology is as a NoOps-related technology. The tools needed to implement NoOps according to Nashawaty are those that offer the ability to control code version as well as management and orchestration for containers microservices, cloud platforms, and cloud platforms and monitoring of application performance; and automated configuration of infrastructure and testing.

Some of the most popular products mentioned by analysts include:

It is a product of Progress Software called Chef Automate, which the company claims offers an Analytics and dashboards for enterprises, “enabling cross-team collaboration with practical insights regarding compliance and configuration as well as an audit-able record of any changes made to the environment.” Chef Automate presents information from Chef to give users a clear view of the configuration, security, and compliance.

Digital workflow tools, such as the ones from ServiceNow which help you detect potential issues, and then resolve them automatically or send them (with the necessary information to fix the issues) to the appropriate personnel. ServiceNow’s drag-and drop interface lets businesses to automatize everything from solving password issues and running scripts for configuration.

Puppet Enterprise can be used by system administrators automated tasks to continuously create new systems, swiftly deploy essential applications, and also proactively and incrementally manage infrastructure. It is compatible with different operating systems as well as cloud environments, and allows auto-remediation of components in applications to the desired state.

It is Red Hat’s Ansible automation platform is open-source software that provides provisioning tools for configuration and deployment that integrate with monitoring, observability , and workflow platforms to streamline IT processes. Red Hat claims Ansible can manage software-defined, physical networks, as well as cloud-based networks. manage and automate Kubernetes-based clusters; manage containerized applications on a scale; orchestrate security systems and provide cloud-based cloud-based instances, networks, and infrastructure.

VMware’s SaltStack Config vRealize Automation that automates and orchestrates optimization of infrastructure and security. It’s able to “create an easy human-readable infrastructure in code,” configure and control operating systems, and automately ensure desired states in the words of VMware.

It is the Dynatrace Software Intelligence Platform, which offers capabilities ranging from monitoring of infrastructure and cloud automation to vulnerability detection in the run-time. It promises to offer not only logs, metrics and tracks but also a complete topological model, code-level details as well as user-experience as well as behavioral data.

Conclusion

If the dream for “total NoOps” is achievable or even desirable, the implementation of NoOps techniques and principles will allow you to focus more on your business and customers rather than your IT infrastructure. It will also allow you to increase the speed and deployment of new apps and services in order to meet new demands of your business.

“While numerous I&O professionals fret about the possibility that their operations could one day become automated that nobody will require their services.” According to Forrester In fully-automated settings “someone has to manage resources, model configurations , and optimize” infrastructure using code.