What is Robotic Process Automation?

Robotic process automation, or RPA for short, is an emerging technology that allows you to automate business processes. It does this by mimicking the work of one or more users. I’ve seen this technology running on a thin-client machine, where the aim of the original business process was to create consulting codes. The diagram below, shows a simple example of how RPA can work. If you’re used simpler tools, like Flow in Office 365 of IFTTT.com then you’ll be familiar with this automation concept.

Let me back up a bit and explain RPA in the context of a real-world business problem.  Consulting codes are used in many organisations.  They allow consultants to book time to a client, a project or a particularly type of work.  These codes are usually entered into a timesheet and time is allocated against them.  If you work in a medium to large organisation, you’ll be familiar with the use of SAP, Dynamics 365 or other web-based programs that allow entry of timesheet information via these consulting codes.

The codes are critical to ensuring that clients are billed correctly, project spend is accurately tracked and that it’s clear what consultants  are spending their time on.  Without these codes, the business would grind to a halt, after all, not being able to invoice clients for work, is one of the most critical business processes in a business, next to paying employees and selling new products.

The most common type of code I’ve code across is called a Work Breakdown Structure Code (WBS).  You can see them in use in SAP.  The diagram below shows some of the key information that is required to build a WBS code in SAP:

So how does this work on a thin-client PC?  Well let’s take Citrix XenDesktop product.  Once built, installed and setup, using automation influenced by a DevOps culture, we have a small farm of virtual desktops that we can use as robots.  In the WBS Code example above, we need to first understand the entire business process for creating an SAP WBS process.  Below is a diagram showing how we might build the XenApp farm and build out our army of automated workers:

Let’s assume this process requires a geographically dispersed team, spread across Australia, India and Malaysia and involved 5 handoffs.  That is 5 different people that need to do something in the process.  It’s likely we’re going to have some lost time, whilst we wait for the next person to do something.  In fact I’ve seen this process take up to 5 days, when in fact, once all the data is known, it should only take 30 minutes.  The key here is that it is often the waiting time in a process, that slows things down. 

This is because it may take a few hours or days for someone to actually come to that item in their queue and process the transaction.  So clearly there is a clear driver for improved customer service, through an automated process.  Below is a diagram that illustrates a sample business process.  It outlines the process of making a pizza.  As you can see it contains a number of handoffs.  These delays between handoffs will affect the speed at which the pizza is delivered to the end-customer:​

The next step, once you have understood your process and you know what each person does at each step, you can now setup your 3 virtual desktops with all the software, the same as your workers.  It also may be possible at this stage to install all the software on a single virtual desktop and think about streamlining your process.  So let’s assume we are able to do this and stay with a single virtual desktop.

Once the desktop is setup, we can then use the in-built RPA engine to create the automation and store this as code.  This means we can view the code and optimise as required. 

Here is a video which provides an introduction to building RPA automation using a product called Blue Prism.  I’ve chosen this product, because I’ve seen this working on the SAP WBS code automation problem.  We’re using the process studio function to build our automation.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhUojgE3WUI

Clearly there are a few techniques within a product like Blue Prism to automating our processes.  I’ve shown you this technique as it’s very visual and simple to understand.

For more information on how to automate processes as part of a DevOps culture change program, it would be worth considering our DevOps Foundation courses.  We outline the basic principles of cultural change and discuss how tools, such as Blue Prism, Jenkins, DXC Agility, GitHub, .Net framework and many other tools, can help improve the quality and speed of your solution release lifecycle:

www.alctraining.com.au/courses/devops/

How To Select A Cloud Adoption Roadmap in 10 Steps

Many CIOs, CTOs and business leaders are all working through their cloud strategies. Most large companies in Australia have adopted a hybrid cloud approach, using both private and public cloud services. In this blog, I’ll  outline 10 critical steps on how you can create a cloud adoption roadmap and then align this roadmap to your current execution path.

A cloud adoption roadmap is a really important tool, as it serves to visualise and communicate your plans to all key stakeholders in your organisation. The important part of the roadmap is to ensure you have a clear 1 page visual outlining the key milestones and decisions points, backed up by clear definitions behind the roadmap of what each component on the roadmap means. My suggestion is to use a modelling tool to create your roadmap and my top pick is the Abacus tool from Avolution.

Before we delve any deeper into our cloud adoption roadmap, let’s be clear on some basic terminology, to ensure we’re all on the same page:

Software as a Service (SaaS)

These are services that end-users consume. Examples include: Social Media Tools, Salesforce, Office 365 and Xero. The apps that you download to your mobile phone are predominantly SaaS.

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

These are services that developers consume to create SaaS products.  Examples include: Development Tools, Testing Tools and Datastores.  Apps that you download to your PC or laptop at home to allow you to write code, test code and setup datastores in the cloud are all examples of PaaS.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

These are services that operations teams will build, test and commission to support developers, who consume PaaS and end-users, who consume SaaS on the PaaS, or SaaS via a 3rd party.  IaaS can be virtual machines, networking or basic storage.

If you’re interested in digging deeper in cloud definitions, there is a simple whitepaper that the National Institute for Standards and Technology have produced. It covers everything in 3 pages.

I’ve also created a simple reference model below:

 

DevOps

This is cultural change centred around ensuring that the developers (working on PaaS) are collaborating and communicating effectively with the operations teams (working on IaaS). This is important to create secure, reliable and engaging SaaS apps.

The DevOps Institute have a great video on DevOps that can teach you more. 

Or you can read my further thoughts here.  

Hybrid Cloud

 

All organisations I have worked with in Australia, that have more than 100 employees will have a combination of private and public clouds in their environment. This is the definition of hybrid cloud. Probably 99% will have an on-premise (or 3rd party hosted) private cloud for Active Directory and using public cloud for Office 365 with Azure Active Directory. The 1% is a single instance of G Suite I have come across. 

Great video on hybrid cloud here:

10 steps to set up a cloud adoption roadmap

Now that we have defined these terms, we can take a look at our Cloud Adoption Roadmap and our 10 steps:

  1. Perform a current state architecture analysis to understand how each department / business area is already adopting SaaS apps in your organisation.
  2. Understand the needs each department / business currently has and develop a feature-centric SaaS cloud adoption roadmap to cover the next 12 months.
  3. Communicate and seek feedback with the key stakeholders regularly, to guide your cloud adoption roadmap, particularly as the business investigates and pilots new SaaS apps and develops new business capabilities.
  4. Define a clear strategy at the CTO / CIO level as to whether you are going to adopt PaaS and/or IaaS services, or simply remain with SaaS-only services.
  5. Ensure your IaaS / PaaS strategy includes key business drivers and evidence of business need.
  6. Feed in your IaaS and PaaS strategy into the cloud adoption roadmap and socialise with key stakeholders.
  7. Based on business situational awareness and factors that are important to the key stakeholders, embark on a short IaaS / PaaS cloud service provider shortlist selection.
  8. Once the IaaS / PaaS shortlist is down to say 2-3 candidates run a proof of concept for each cloud service provider to determine the value, test your hypothesis on how you may transform your legacy IT and seek input from key stakeholders.
  9. Extend the IaaS / PaaS proof of concept to a pilot with a single cloud service provider, to further strengthen the more complex hyposthesis you’ve made with your current legacy IT investments.
  10. Extend your cloud adoption roadmap to include how you will transition your current private cloud and/or legacy IT investments to IaaS, PaaS and SaaS services, being cognisant that this may be a 2-5 year journey.

I recommend using the Lean UX method for testing out your hypothesis when validating your cloud adoption plan.  This can be found in the Scaled Agile Framework.

 

You can learn more about Scaled Agile on my own blog. 

If you’re interested in learning more, I offer a range of Cloud, DevOps and Scaled Agile courses at ALC Training:

What Is Cloud Computing and How Can It Make Your Business More Agile?

Cloud technology has become a buzzword of sorts in the tech industry. Yet, a report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that 86 per cent of businesses in Australia were using cloud computing in some form back in 2013. 

But, what is cloud technology?

The definition of cloud technology

Cloud computing is a fairly new technological innovation in the commercial world.

According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology‘s (NIST), it is a technological mechanism that facilitates on-demand access to a shared supply of flexible IT resources.

The NIST definition provides five fundamental attributes of cloud computing:

  1. On-demand self-service;
  2. Broad network access;
  3. Resource pooling;
  4. Rapid elasticity or expansion; and
  5. Measured service.

Alongside these, cloud computing is also grouped into three other categories.


A public cloud is a technological innovation that allows service providers to use the internet to make IT resources available to a range of consumers.Public, private and hybrid clouds

Storage and applications, or software-as-a-service, are made available without the required hardware and bandwidth costs. Typically, public clouds are a pay-as-you-go service as costs equate with what has been used.

There are a few limitations to this model, for instance, the low-level security features make it a far-less-attractive choice for those looking to store or transmit sensitive data. 

Private clouds, on the other hand, offer consumers better IT security because they are provisioned for use by only one organisation. Anyone who has attended an information security training course will know that limiting who can access can The cloud infrastructure is usually operated by a third-party, however, they can also be governed by the organisation or a combination of both.

Hybrid cloud infrastructure, in most cases, is a composite of public and private cloud infrastructure. Hybrids have the distinct benefit of allowing organisations to maintain control of an internally managed cloud while at the same time utilising public cloud architecture when needed.

During peak use periods, applications, services and data can be relocated to a public cloud, circumnavigating the obstacle of space or accessibility. Hybrid clouds offer organisations greater scalability as well as excellent information security. 

Public clouds offer a range of benefits, however, very rarely will an enterprise deploy all its applications into one.

Agile IT project management and cloud computing

In today’s business environment, organisations need to be able to respond quickly to changes in the commercial environment. This is especially important as workforces are becoming more mobile though the fragmentation of employee environments.

Agile management methodologies are currently being utilised to shorten service deployment time and integrate customer feedback quickly. However, in most industries, an agile approach is not effective without other specific components. 

For instance, a software development company needs a platform that can facilitate quick development cycles. Cloud computing can make the difference. It’s online status allows end users to get their hands on the product or service quicker.

To employ cloud computing in such a way, a manager will need to seek out an IT project management training course, such as a PRINCE2 Agile.

PRINCE2 Agile combines the flexibility and reactivity of agile with the standardised and robust framework of PRINCE2 training. When this best practice is combined with cloud computing, a company’s agility and resilience can be greatly improved.   

To get access to a quality project management training provider, contact ALC Training today and find out more.

Clearing the air: Is now the time to start thinking seriously about cloud tech?

The cloud is utilised across the globe and yet still misunderstood by many. It’s capable of ensuring greater security across organisations both small and large, and yet can still strike a sense of urgency and confusion into many business owners.

With the substantial growth of cloud only set to continue for the foreseeable future, it’s time to clear the air around this trend.

It’s time to clear the air around this trend.

A sector set for massive growth

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Cloud IT Infrastructure Tracker, vendor revenue from sales of IT infrastructure products (server, enterprise storage, and Ethernet switch) for cloud environments, including public and private cloud, grew 11.4% year over year in the first quarter of 2019 (1Q19), reaching $14.5 billion.  It’s certainly no small increase, and shows many businesses are now turning to cloud-based systems.

“As the overall IT infrastructure goes through a period of slowdown after an outstanding 2018, the important trends might look somewhat distorted in the short term,” said Natalya Yezhkova, research vice president, Infrastructure Systems, Platforms and Technologies at IDC. “IDC’s long-term expectations strongly back continuous growth of cloud IT infrastructure environments. With vendors and service providers finding new ways of delivering cloud services, including from IT infrastructure deployed at customer premises, end users have fewer obstacles and pain points in adopting cloud/services-based IT.”

Total spending for this year is expected to sit around US$44.5 billion, accounting for a third of all IT spending. That’s spending across the globe.

Long term, IDC expects spending on cloud IT infrastructure to grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.5%, reaching $94.5 billion in 2023 and accounting for 57.6% of total IT infrastructure spend. Public cloud infrastructure will account for 66.2% of this amount, growing at an 6.6% CAGR. Spending on private cloud infrastructure will grow at a CAGR of 9.4%.

How can businesses use the cloud?

With growth surging upwards, and more providers starting to offer better cloud services, there’s no better time for businesses to start using the new technologies. But how can businesses actually use them?

Bringing staff up to speed

Businesses wanting to adopt cloud technologies don’t face an altogether difficult path, as third party providers can handle much of the installation and ongoing upkeep of the systems. There’s an opportunity to take cloud adoption one step further, however, by allowing staff to gain accreditation with an IT framework.

This means they’ll have an understanding of IT best practice – key when using new technologies.

To find more about leading IT frameworks get in touch with the expert trainers at ALC Training today.

Related Training:

ITIL 4 Foundation

CCSP Certified Cloud Security Professional

Office 365 Security & Compliance

Cloud Computing Foundation

Dealing with cloud misconceptions

Technology has come a long way in a short space of time, with the cloud standing out as one of the best examples. Improvements to communications, staff workflow and productivity can all be seen through the implementation of new cloud platforms, but there are also misconceptions that can limit the benefits.

It’s especially important that IT leaders understand common cloud misapprehensions, and the most appropriate ways to deal with them.

Understanding and dealing with cloud misconceptions

Like a number of new technologies, the cloud has quickly expanded in use across a number of enterprises and business sectors. In turn, this has resulted in the perpetration of a number of myths – many of which can lead to false expectations.

It’s important that these misconceptions are understood by the IT leaders within an organisation, so as to ensure projects have realistic, achievable goals.

The cloud is applicable everywhere

This is certainly one of the more common myths, and for good reason. A substantial number of technologies have been paired with the cloud to great effect, such as video conferencing, file storage and remote working. In turn, this has lead to an assumption that the technologies can be utilised for any purpose.

For example, a business may operate a legacy application and decide that it’s a good candidate for a transition to the cloud. Unless there are cost savings, however, it’s a good idea to forgo any such implementation and continue operating the legacy platform.

The solution: A project management framework such as PRINCE2 is one of the most effective ways to deal with cloud misconceptions, as it means a concrete plan is put in place from the outset.

Any cloud project undertaken through a proven methodology has clear goals that all personnel involved in the project understand – this is key to ensure success. When everyone is on the same page, there are rarely unrealistic expectations that cloud cause delays or derail the implementation of a cloud platform.

The cloud is less secure than traditional technologies

Moving from traditional IT platforms to a new, cloud-based alternative can be a daunting prospect for businesses of any size, given the change required. In many cases, security concerns are also rampant – but these concerns are often unfounded.

A cloud platform that’s implemented correctly should have the same focus on security as traditional platforms, along with additional layers of security in the form of monitoring. Essentially, a vendor constantly surveys a cloud platform, assessing any possible security threats that could cause issues.

The solution: Businesses may also want an additional security assurance, and a security framework is likely to be of value here.

SABSA is a methodology designed specifically to assist businesses in the creation of useful, risk-focused security architectures. It’s highly effective for organisations of all sizes, given that it’s essentially a group of frameworks, models and processes that can be utilised individually or as a group.

As a result, the methodology can be tailored to the current technology implementation underway within the business, such as the cloud.

There’s no data privacy

A lack of privacy was cited as the most common cloud myth by Microsoft. This almost certainly stems from the misconception that all company data is stored in a central location that’s accessible to other businesses sharing the same storage. In fact, each business using a cloud-based solution is accessing a highly secure section that no other companies have access to. Any possible privacy breach is more likely to come from within the business.

The solution: To ensure that privacy remains a top priority, businesses can again use the PRINCE2 framework. This means a plan is effected that controls who has access to the cloud-based system, thus ensuring only staff that need access are granted it.

Overcoming cloud misconceptions is a necessary step in order for businesses to successfully implement cloud technologies.

 

Related Training: