Cloud & Hybrid Workload Automation: Software & Use Cases in '24

Today’s businesses are increasing their flexibility while managing costs by adopting a hybrid cloud strategy. According to Statista, industries have increased their cloud workloads and had an uptick in 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.¹

Cloud and hybrid workload automation software help businesses execute and manage workflows in a cloud and on-premises environment. According to McKinsey, automation of workflows on cloud services helps businesses gain agility and flexibility, and it saves businesses from spending time, effort, and costs on manual tasks.²

This article will explore the differences between cloud and hybrid workload automation, the top 10 tools, and 7 use cases of hybrid & cloud workload automation that enhance agility and productivity in business processes.

What is the difference between cloud and hybrid workload automation?

Cloud Workload Automation (CWA) is made for cloud environments like public, private, and multi-cloud setups. It helps automate tasks on different cloud platforms. This type of automation works well with the flexible nature of cloud resources, meaning it can adjust well as needs increase or decrease. CWA is really useful for businesses that are fully in the cloud or moving to the cloud. Its main job is managing tasks and data analysis in the cloud.

Hybrid Workload Automation (HWA) deals with cloud and on-premises environments (like an office or data center). It helps manage tasks in both these areas, linking traditional data center work with cloud services.

HWA is essential for companies with both on-premises systems and cloud services. It’s especially useful when some data or programs need to stay on-premises for reasons like safety rules, performance, cost, or security, but the company also uses cloud technology. This type of automation connects and organizes resources and tasks across both the traditional IT setups and cloud-based systems.

If you are already looking for cloud or hybrid automation solutions, check our article(s) for workload automation tools and job schedulers for each area:

• For enterprise workloads: Top Hybrid Cloud Job Scheduler
• For enterprises that rely on SAP: Top SAP Job Scheduling Software
• For small businesses with simple automation needs: Top Open Source Job Schedulers & WLA Tools

Top 10 cloud workload automation software

*Reviews are based on Capterra and G2. Vendors are ranked according to their reviews except for sponsors of this article, whose links are included in the table above.

Top 7 cloud workload automation use cases

1. Regulatory compliance

Failure to comply with data privacy regulations can result in fines and damage to a business’s reputation. As regulations change over time, businesses need to stay up-to-date with them. 

Hybrid and cloud workload automation tools help businesses store, classify, and use data. Regularly scheduled tasks for security audits, compliance checks, and updates can be automated, ensuring that these critical activities are performed consistently and without fail, thereby reducing the risk of security breaches and non-compliance penalties.

For example, BlueBay Asset Management, a financial investment company based in the United Kingdom, successfully implemented ActiveBatch Workload Automation to centralize job scheduling and improve system performance. The solution allowed them to automate critical business processes, such as risk assessment and trading software updates, SSRS reporting, and IT operations and infrastructure management. BlueBay achieved cost savings, improved compliance, and increased visibility in their workflows. ³

2. Cloud provisioning

If a business uses virtual servers, configuring and provisioning services manually takes a lot of time. This can result in low performance and high costs. Cloud automation tools build some templates and guide how the configuration of virtual servers should be done. Thereby, infrastructure configurations are scaled easily and do not take much time. By adopting cloud automation, businesses can simplify the process of network management by automating the allocation of resources.

Real-world example: Amazon moved its operations to the cloud in 2010 and benefited from cloud automation in many services. The company automated its provisioning system on the cloud and controlled scaling capacity efficiently. ⁴

3. Application deployment

Hybrid and cloud automation improves overall operational efficiency by significantly reducing the time taken for deployment, freeing up the development team to focus on creating new features and improving the application rather than spending time on repetitive deployment tasks.

HWA and CWA tools also reduce errors caused by manual interventions, enhancing the deployments’ reliability by leveraging cloud automation in application deployment; organizations can make the process more efficient, reliable, and fast, leading to quicker releases, cost savings, and improved application quality.

Real-world example: Walmart, an e-commerce market giant, adopted a cloud platform to deploy applications across numerous cloud servers. The company also uses cloud automation on server-build processes and software configuration.⁵

4. Monitoring and remediation

Hybrid and cloud automation tools can be used to set up automated monitoring of applications and infrastructure. Cloud automation tools can specifically collect data on various metrics, such as CPU usage, network traffic, disk space, and more, across all resources in the cloud environment. This data can be used to analyze the performance and health of applications and infrastructure.

Automated monitoring systems can provide real-time visibility into the system’s operations, enabling you to detect anomalies as they occur. They are capable of generating alerts based on predefined conditions, notifying the responsible teams instantly if a problem arises.

When it comes to remediation, cloud automation tools can take predefined actions based on specific conditions. For instance, if a server goes down, the tool can automatically spin up a new server to ensure continuity of service. This ensures that any problems’ impact is minimized and services remain available to users.

Using Infrastructure as Code (IaC), you can also maintain a version-controlled ‘desired state’ of your infrastructure. If any deviations from this desired state are detected, the system can be automatically corrected to match this state. This makes maintaining consistent environments easier and reduces the risk of configuration drift.

Automated remediation can also be used in the context of security. If a potential security threat is detected, the system can take immediate action, such as isolating a compromised system or applying a necessary patch. 

5. Scheduling and Resource Management

A common struggle businesses face is the efficient allocation of cloud resources. Through its smart scheduling capabilities, hybrid & cloud workload automation ensures that tasks are executed at optimal times and under predefined conditions. For example, a company that processes vast amounts of data overnight might schedule these workloads during off-peak hours to reduce costs via workload automation or job scheduling software. This is analogous to a manufacturing process where tasks are scheduled based on their dependencies to maximize throughput while minimizing idle time.

6. Enhancing Scalability 

One of the primary uses of hybrid & cloud workload automation in scalability is its ability to allocate resources dynamically based on real-time demand. In a scenario where an organization experiences fluctuating or unpredictable workloads, manual scaling of resources can be slow and inefficient. Hybrid workload automation tools can automatically scale resources up or down, depending on the current workload.

One of the best examples of how hybrid & cloud workload automation can impact efficiency is during events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday. E-commerce companies, for instance, can use these tools to dynamically scale up resources to handle the high load and then scale them back down when normal traffic patterns resume. This flexibility ensures a seamless customer experience while optimizing cloud spending.

7. Automation of other manual tasks on the cloud

Manual tasks are prone to human errors and can result in significant losses for businesses. Hybrid and cloud automation enables businesses to automate manual and tedious tasks in a cloud environment. HWA and CWA tools codify workloads on the cloud and enable the tool to repeat it in the future.

Hybrid and cloud automation removes error-prone practices and accelerates workload processes. Based on the rules set by the criteria, cloud automation tools easily detect the delineations and notify the user about them. By automating workloads on the cloud, businesses can manage their workflows quickly, securely, and reliably.

Real-world case study: Netflix automated an essential part of its DevOps on the cloud and gained flexibility and agility in releasing new changes to its website.⁶ In case of any issues with the changes on the website, users return to previous versions and continue to watch without interruption, thanks to cloud automation.

Further Reading

To learn more about automation and orchestration, feel free to read our articles:

• Automation vs Orchestration: Differences & How to Get Started
• Guide Into IT Orchestration: Benefits, Use Cases & Tools
• Top 5 Benefits of Intelligent Orchestration in Securing DevOps
• Top 7+ Workload Automation Tools
• Top Enterprise Job Scheduler Software

If you are looking for automation and orchestration tools, you can visit our hub for the automation software landscape.

If you have other questions about cloud workload automation, we can help:

External Links

• 1. “Organizations’ increase in cloud workloads worldwide in 2021, by industry”, Statista. 2021.
• 2. “Cloud-migration opportunity: Business value grows, but missteps abound” McKinsey. 2023.
• 3. “BlueBay Asset Management Invests In Enterprise-Wide Workload Automation” ActiveBatch.
• 4. “4 real-world examples of cloud automation” Eplexity.
• 5. “Five Companies Utilizing DevOps Practices To The Max” Opsio.
• 6. “Beyond agile: Reorganizing IT for faster software delivery” McKinsey.