So why isn\u2019t every company a platform yet?<\/p>\n
Because technologically speaking, digital ecosystems are more than just a curated collection of partners. They\u2019re complex, multi-faceted systems that require meticulous fine-tuning and orchestration to grow bigger and bolder and scale effectively.<\/p>\n
What sets big tech leaders apart from traditional businesses today is that the former have already perfected the act of business orchestration, while the latter are still very early in the IT automation game.<\/p>\n
This lack of automation (i.e. leanness) means that traditional companies need more:<\/p>\n
- \n
- people to support the same operational processes<\/li>\n
- time to bring new offerings to the market<\/li>\n
- resources to add new ecosystem players<\/li>\n
- dollars to keep the entire venture moving forward<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
All of the above is directly reflected in corporate figures.<\/p>\n
![\"Platform](\"https:\/\/d17ocfn2f5o4rl.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/platform-orchestration-info-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSource: World Economic Forum \u2014 Platforms and Ecosystems: Enabling the Digital Economy<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
So how do tech-led, digital-native companies manage to get ahead with fewer people in less time?<\/p>\n
The short answer is that they automate and orchestrate the majority of IT and operational processes powering their platforms.<\/p>\n
Orchestration vs automation: Where do I begin with optimizing my operations?<\/h2>\n
Every tech ecosystem has a lot of \u201cplayers\u201d \u2014 pipelines, workflows, tasks, and processes moving in different directions to push business operations in the desired direction.<\/p>\n
Some systems are simple and streamlined, with all workflows going in one direction.<\/p>\n
Other systems are multi-faceted and contain multiple one-way and two-way data flows within them powered by an underlying platform<\/b> \u2014 a tech structure that allows for building and running multiple products using the same technological framework.<\/p>\n
![\"Platform](\"https:\/\/d17ocfn2f5o4rl.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/platform-orchestration-info-2.jpg\")
\nSource: AWS<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nAs you transition to a platform business model, the volume of moving parts \u2014 tasks, data flows, apps, and so on \u2014 that needs to be managed grows exponentially. Thanks to the network effect, a single inefficient process can translate into significant bottlenecks down the line. And the more inefficiencies you have, the more complex and messier your entire platform will eventually become, ultimately leading to failure.<\/p>\n
In short, platforms are difficult to sustain. You constantly need to add checks and balances to ensure the stability of your platform, all applications running on top of it, and all partners participating in it.<\/p>\n
The simplest way to avoid chaos is to engage in process optimization to make everything on your platform move effectively.<\/p>\n
Automation and orchestration are two methods you can use for that purpose.<\/p>\n
What is IT automation?<\/h2>\n
Automation in IT means programming a task to run on its own, either on-premises or in the cloud<\/a>. For example, you can automatically:<\/p>\n
- \n
- start or stop a workload<\/li>\n
- schedule data backups<\/li>\n
- provision extra resources<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The idea is simple: Say that some app running on your platform needs to back up data every Monday. That can be automated.<\/p>\n
What is orchestration, then?<\/h3>\n
IT orchestration takes the idea of automation one step further by programming the automated execution of a process (or workflow) that involves multiple tasks and\/or systems.<\/p>\n
In this sense, process orchestration means automating a series of individual tasks.<\/p>\n
Service orchestration<\/b>, in turn, is the automatic coordination and management of systems (hosting individual tasks and processes) spanning different cloud growth vectors and domains.<\/p>\n
In essence, a simple orchestration definition would look like this:<\/p>\n
Orchestration is the process of stitching together all elements of your infrastructure \u2014 computer systems; middleware, cloud, and on-premises services; plus data storage units \u2014 so they play nicely together.<\/em><\/p>\n
If you\u2019re running a complex digital solution (platform or not), you already know that multiple operations can be optimized with orchestration:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Deployment orchestration, the pillar of DevOps, is the complex process of building an automated cloud-based pipeline that merges, automates, and coordinates various aspects of development, quality assurance, and deployments.<\/li>\n
- Infrastructure orchestration is aimed at reducing the complexities of deploying, executing, and managing different configurations across the entire infrastructure (both cloud and on-premises).<\/li>\n
- Cloud orchestration is the process of streamlining connections and interactions between different processes and workloads running on public, hybrid, and private clouds.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
As you can see, there are a lot of areas where orchestration can replace low-value, error-prone work with one-click, no-conflict automated execution.<\/b><\/p>\n
Now let\u2019s take this idea one step further. If you\u2019re running an already complex ecosystem, you may soon realize that orchestrating things across the board isn\u2019t that simple. Neither is managing your newly minted orchestration framework spanning different types of services: cloud, networking, analytics, ITSM, payments, etc.<\/p>\n
Survey: What challenges does your organization face or expect to face in managing service orchestration?<\/b>
\n![\"Platform](\"https:\/\/d17ocfn2f5o4rl.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/platform-orchestration-info-3.jpg\")
\nSource: Forrester \u2014 Service Orchestration: Increasing the Efficiency of Hybrid IT<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nEnter orchestration platforms<\/h3>\n
While there\u2019s no lack of process and task-specific IT orchestration tools, up until recently, few to no comprehensive orchestration services were available on the market. However, as businesses began embracing platform-based or marketplace-based business<\/a> models, the need for a master orchestration system that can tackle automation across a wide range of systems, services, and workflows grew more urgent.<\/p>\n
And whenever there\u2019s a pressing need, a tech solution is sure to come.<\/p>\n
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