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Rundeck Embraces Self-Service as the Future of IT Operations

Rundeck markets itself as an enabler of self-service IT operations. This marketing strategy aligns with the transition of IT operations from order-takers to engineers. But organizations must change their way of working to make self-service successful.

Rundeck is a tool that allows administrators to create jobs, which are automated workflows that take certain actions in response to activation from the console or from API calls. Jobs can then be run by users and applications that have the appropriate access permissions, eliminating the need for users to put in a ticket for these requests.

Defining these automated workflows allows Operations teams to reduce manual repetitive work, which is often required to fulfill requests from other groups that lack the expertise or the access to complete that work on their own.

The traditional system of handing off tickets to siloed teams of specialists results in constant interruptions to operations teams, impeding their ability to accomplish project work.

Ticket queues also result in extended wait times and increased task-switching on the part of requesters such as development and QA teams. Slower feedback loops result in decreased throughput and lower quality.

The solution is for Ops to define jobs that can be kicked off by other groups at will, in accordance with appropriate access controls.

Using automated jobs reduces manual repetitive work, increases the throughput of all groups, and ensures consistent performance of the latest method of procedure for each job.

Rundeck touts itself as the ideal platform to enable Operations teams to create an effective self-service hub, not as a big bang, but through an iterative approach that gradually expands the range of capabilities.

Our Take

Self-service is the future of IT operations. We’re seeing the transition to self-service operations take place in the highest-performing IT organizations.

Many organizations will need to change their organizational culture and transform their governance in order to take full advantage of self-service capabilities.

I&O teams need to adopt an engineering mindset, which involves shifting their way of thinking from simply executing the work themselves to building out and curating the tools, processes, and procedures their colleagues need for self-service.

Organizations need to transform their governance so they can align and demonstrate the business value of IT, and happily pony up the necessary funding to build out an effective engineering practice.

The CIO or IT director will often have the difficult task of demonstrating the value of this initiative to procure the necessary time and resources to invest in engineering work.

For many organizations, a critical shift in organizational culture and in governance is necessary to realize the full value of self-service operations.

Source: SoftwareReviews, Report Published June 2019

Source: SoftwareReviews, Report Published July 2019


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