Inherently, automated runbooks provide a high-level of process optimization. However, new artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities can further automated runbook optimization and advance your IT operation processes even further.
In this article, we’ll overview basic elements of automation and how runbook optimization can be achieved with runbook automation tools and AI.
What is runbook optimization and how does it improve AI operations?
Runbook optimization is all about improving runbooks to be as effective as possible with advanced automation and AI capabilities. By incorporating AI into automated runbooks, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to create, summarize, and improve them. AI also helps increase efficiency and productivity while simultaneously reducing the potential for human errors. This approach is critical to optimizing automated runbooks across complex IT environments.
The difference between automation and AI-powered runbooks
A runbook that contains automation automates repetitive, manual tasks which provides many benefits around time savings and reducing manual errors. However, automation doesn’t consider repetitive logic or pinpointing errors which can be addressed with AI-powered runbooks.
To achieve automated runbook optimization you need to review the processes that populate your runbook to look for any breakdowns or areas of improvement with AI.
For example, during an IT outage or failover event, using an automated disaster recovery solution with AI capabilities can help summarize the automated runbook to provide key stakeholders and team members an overview, at a glance - streamlining communication and saving time. It can also pinpoint suggestions for improvement to identify inefficiencies or bottlenecks based on reviewing runbooks that were already executed.
Key elements of effective automated runbooks
An effective automated runbook is built considering security measures and with flexibility to scale. Whether there’s 100 or 1,000+ tasks, an automated runbook should be able to handle the needs. To support runbook optimization, the following elements are essential for any effective automated runbook:
- Automated triggers
- Defined tasks in a workflow including dependencies
- Clearly defined sequence of tasks
- Variables and secure credential management
- Ability to interact with multiple tools or platforms through an API or integrations
- Error handling and rollback procedures for resilience
- Audit trails for reporting and regulatory compliance
- Access control, security, versions and permission capabilities
Standardizing your automated runbooks with templates
Automated runbook templates allow you to create a pre-defined set of tasks and workflows for complex processes like IT disaster recovery or major incident management. These templates provide a faster way to standardize execution, ensure governance with approval processes, and reduce potential manual errors.
Standardization is key when optimizing automated runbooks. Templates provide consistency and efficiency while allowing for customization as needed.
Adding a short, pre-defined set of tasks
While your automated runbook has a predefined set of tasks in the runbook, there are times when you need to adjust your process with short, pre-defined repeatable tasks. By dynamically adding these small, pre-defined set of tasks into your runbook, you further standardize and automate common mini-processes.
For example, during an application failover, you may need to conduct a smoke test on certain applications that were recovered in the secondary site. The smoke test quickly determines if the most critical functionalities are operational and if the secondary site is stable to proceed with resuming services. Since the smoke test isn’t always performed, you can create a small pre-defined set of tasks that can get added to the runbook, when needed.
Implementing version control and continuous improvement
When using automated runbooks for IT operations it’s not uncommon for an enterprise to store thousands of runbook templates and use tens or hundreds simultaneously, at any given time. While runtook templates provide standardization and ensure consistency in process execution, it can create chaos for ensuring the correct versions are being used.
Implementing version control with a clear view of the template’s approval history enables you to manage multiple versions of a runbook. With version control you can incorporate lessons learned into the new template and automatically make a previous version invalid to prevent user errors. Version control plays a key role in optimizing automated runbooks by ensuring consistency, minimizing risks, and supporting a repeatable process for continuous improvement.
Supporting security protocols and compliance considerations
Platforms for automated runbooks should include standard features to ensure security of the data and product. This includes:
- Single Sign-On (SSO)
- Role-Based-Access-Control (RBAC)
- Data encryption
- Key management
- Authentication for integrations including Basic Auth, API keys, Bearer Token and OAuth
These features enable secure, compliant automation while minimizing risks during runbook optimization.
Optimize with Cutover AI-powered runbooks
To fully optimize your automated runbooks, you need to move beyond a basic level of automation towards AI capabilities. Cutover’s AI-powered runbooks allow for continuous improvement and heightened operational efficiency across critical IT processes.
Create automated runbooks with Cutover AI
Boost staff efficiency with AI-powered runbooks, creating executable plans in minutes. Instantly generate new runbooks, complete with tasks, dependencies, and descriptions, from various data sources, then refine them with unique tasks for optimal accuracy and flexibility - boosting speed and precision in automated runbooks optimization.
Summarize automated runbooks with Cutover AI
With AI-powered summarizations, it generates concise, editable summaries of the automated runbook’s purpose and content. This allows stakeholders to quickly grasp the objective and current status of even the most intricate operations at a glance, saving valuable time and improving communication.
Analyze performance and identify bottlenecks with Cutover’s AI-powered runbooks
AI-powered runbooks provide intelligent improvements that pinpoint bottlenecks and inefficiencies in your runbooks by analyzing historical execution data. The system offers intelligent suggestions for improvement by identifying redundant tasks, optimizing dependencies, streamlining workflows, or recommending overall plan enhancements. Human oversight remains key to reviewing and implementing these data-driven insights, ensuring your runbooks continuously become more efficient and effective.
Optimize automated runbooks with agentic AI integrations
Agentic AI integrations elevate automated runbooks to a new level of intelligent orchestration, significantly enhancing efficiency and oversight for critical IT processes like disaster recovery, cloud migration, and incident resolution. By leveraging the capabilities of external AI agents, tasks within runbooks can be dynamically executed, such as retrieving and analyzing recent application change requests along with the reasoning behind the results, all within the controlled context of the automated runbook.
Let Cutover AI support your advanced automated runbook optimization
With Cutover’s AI-powered runbooks including IT disaster recovery runbooks, IT runbook templates,and agentic AI integrations, you can achieve runbook optimization with intelligent automation but keep the human oversight needed for complex IT operation processes.
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