Solving tool overload, one automation step at a time

Modern IT departments are wrestling with a sprawling array of automation and operations tools, often numbering in the dozens or even hundreds. This complexity makes efficient management and integration a significant obstacle, especially as organizations accelerate their investment in hybrid IT ecosystems, cloud services, and cloud-native application modernization. To help overcome this “tool sprawl” and its impact on productivity, enterprises are working to establish a common environment for orchestrating and managing critical IT processes—a “unified IT automation platform.”

To understand the business imperatives driving this shift, we asked S&P Global Market Intelligence 451 Research to conduct a comprehensive survey with 900 business and IT decision-makers and influencers. These leaders provided their perspectives on the current state of IT automation, anticipated changes, and the implications of relying on so many different tools. These insights also helped shape our understanding of the definition and expectations for a unified IT automation platform.

Key insights from the report

Automation challenges: The journey to stable and reliable IT automation isn’t without its challenges. The top hurdles identified by respondents were complex and lengthy implementation processes, cited by a substantial 58%, closely followed by integration with existing systems and software, at 51%. Budget constraints (44%) and skills shortages (40%) also pose obstacles.

Excess IT tooling: The pervasive challenge of tool sprawl is evident, with 42% of respondents reporting the use of 26-50 different tools, with 28% reporting more than 50 tools in their toolbox. This fragmentation underscores the need for enhanced tool interoperability. Encouragingly, a significant two-thirds (69%) of enterprises have already established platform engineering programs or are actively committing resources to integrate these tools through a unified orchestration layer. This approach allows teams to retain the tools they find most useful while improving efficiency and visibility through a connected ecosystem.

Cost savings through automation: Enterprises are recognizing the potential that automation brings for cost savings and increased efficiency. In fact, a notable 58% of respondents anticipate their IT automation budget would increase in 2025 compared to 2024, with only 1% expecting a decrease and 40% forecasting a flat budget. Automation helps organizations adapt to these sorts of ongoing changes by reducing manual errors, boosting productivity, and reallocating resources to more strategic tasks. With our automation dashboard, customers achieve better visibility into the entire automation deployment, helping you better understand how you’re using your Red Hat subscription, and so you can get the most out of your investment.

Alt text: Bar chart showing the results of the question “By what percentage do you expect your organization’s IT budget allocation to automation technologies to change in 2025 compared to 2024?” with the 40% of respondents answering “0% increase (no change)”

Defining the unified IT automation platform: The definition of a unified IT automation platform, chosen by 56% of respondents, describes it as “a single platform that integrates various IT automation tools and processes into a cohesive system.” This highlights the need for a centralized control plane that uses AI to integrate, automate, and orchestrate multiple IT tools, processes, and resources, enabling better collaboration across the entire IT environment.

Essential capabilities for enterprise IT: When asked about critical capabilities, IT service management topped the list at 56%, closely followed by generative AI (gen AI) at 53%, reinforcing the deep connection between automation and AI strategies. Respondents identified other important capabilities, including endpoint security (50%), DevOps (47%), identity and access management (43%), and configuration management tools (38%).

How unified automation and AI can propel your operations

AI and automation work together to streamline IT, analyzing data and events in real time, then independently making decisions based on defined policies. This allows them to prevent or resolve IT issues without requiring human staff.

Learn more: 3 reasons why enterprises need a unified automation platform.

Additional resources

• AI Ambitions Meet Automation Reality: The Case for a Unified Platform
• From Vision to Reality - Your 5-Step Playbook for Unified Automation and AI
• Understanding Ansible, AWX, and Ansible Automation Platform
• Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
• Report: The value of a unified IT automation platform