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Orchestration vs. Automation

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It is important to understand the difference between orchestration and automation for any DevOps continuous delivery pipeline initiative. We orchestrate processes and we automate the activities within the process. In a recent DevOps Test Engineer (DTE) certification class I learned how to deconstruct the DevOps pipeline. Understanding the constructs of the pipeline and what your test strategies are will prove helpful for both the orchestration and automation of your delivery pipeline. Benefits of that knowledge generate better alignment and cadence with the business demand and greater deployment velocity. Orchestration and automation take advantage of standardization throughout the DevOps pipeline for integrated tools, integrated code, integrated build and integrated test all the way through. The results? Not only can we deliver product faster but that product or service is now delivered into an anti-fragile, secure and stable environment. 

Confirmation that the process is repeatable ensures that it can be orchestrated. 

You can get more details about how to define, design or improve processes in the Certified Process Design Engineer class, while the focus for this blog is on the orchestration and automation of the process for a DevOps or Continuous Delivery pipeline. You can achieve the overall orchestration by automating the activities that make up the process. Leaders should understand that the process should be comprised of many decoupled activities because this allows for reuse of automation across the entire organization. 

Be sure to recognize the difference between orchestration and automation but also how they relate to one another. Orchestration is about integrating and instrumenting process. Automation is about automating activities within a process. There is a difference, and if understood and performed correctly each should play off one another to result in being more than effective with less time, money and resources spent.

Cost savings throughout and higher customer satisfaction as you increase your capability to respond to dynamic business requirements requires a commitment to ongoing improvement.

To learn more; consider the following ITSM Academy certification courses:
DevOps Test Engineer (DTE)
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