Enterprise IT teams are often tasked with finding ways to do more with less, even as new requests come in on top of their ongoing responsibilities. These requests can include IT functions like creating a new dev environment, updating firewall rules, or provisioning infrastructure for a new application. The problem is that central IT is often burdened with repeated requests—despite the fact that they all follow the same basic pattern and require the same manual processes.
In response to this problem, many organizations have turned to automation. However, in most of them, automation simply hasn’t scaled far enough to truly transform efficiency. That’s why enterprise IT orchestration, which helps organizations get more from their current and future automations, is the next step in meaningfully improving productivity and ease of operations.
Because automation still isn’t accessible to every team that needs it, developers and app teams still have to file tickets, wait in queues, or send direct messages to engineers just to kick off a process they could have handled independently had they been equipped with the right tools and access.
By integrating with other automation tools and centralizing workflows, an enterprise IT orchestration platform lays the foundation for self-service access to pre-built workflows. The advantage? Infrastructure becomes a service, allowing internal app teams to execute pre-approved automations when they need them. Here’s an overview of what your organization should know.
The Problem: Too Many Tickets, Too Little Access
Most enterprise environments already have automation in place, which is a critical step toward successful enterprise IT orchestration. The challenge is that automation alone won’t be able to eliminate operational slowdowns or redundancies if it’s not fully interconnected and accessible.
Here are a few examples:
- Dev teams need to file a ticket to request infrastructure changes they could have tackled with the right tools.
- Network changes require multiple levels of approvals and handoffs that delay time to resolution.
- InfraOps repeatedly manages provisioning or configuration tasks that follow the same process every time.
Over time, the impact of these inefficiencies resonates throughout the organization. IT teams are overloaded, ticket queues build up, and internal users feel blocked from being able to move quickly.
Why Orchestration Is the Missing Layer
Enterprise IT orchestration solves this problem by working with your existing automations. It can connect them into standardized, reusable workflows that can be safely accessed through self-service portals.
Orchestration is different from isolated scripts and ad hoc integrations. It can:
- Centralize automation logic from across NetOps, DevOps, and InfraOps
- Wrap workflows with governance, auditability, and access controls
- Expose automation via UI or API so non-technical users can trigger it without advanced coding knowledge
Your IT teams still maintain control and compliance, but everyone can move faster and access the resources they need consistently and reliably.
What to Look for in a Self-Service Orchestration Platform
To create a scalable self-service portal, enterprise IT orchestration should offer:
- Role-based access control
- Pre-built workflow libraries that allow teams to reuse automation logic across use cases
- API and UI access for users to trigger workflows through internal portals, ticketing systems, or developer tools
- Real-time audit trails that maintain full visibility into every action
With these features, an enterprise IT orchestration platform can turn one-off automations into reusable, governed products and services. It should also support independent, self-service access across selected workflows for your internal users.
Example: From Manual Requests to On-Demand Infrastructure
Here’s an example of how an organization might be able to take advantage of self-service automation portals:
If an app team needs a new staging environment, they would traditionally have to open up a ticket. InfraOps would then run a Terraform script, and network changes would have to go through another approval process. All together, these steps could take days.
With Intelliflow, that same team could access a self-service portal. Behind the scenes, a pre-built orchestration workflow would provision infrastructure, apply the needed network and security configurations, log the action, and notify any pertinent stakeholders. All of this could happen without a ticket and without delay. Even more importantly, it won’t bypass governance or put compliance at risk.
The Business Impact of Enterprise IT Orchestration
Interested in making the switch to full enterprise IT orchestration? Transitioning from manual requests to orchestrated self-service workflows offers a clear set of benefits:
- Reduced ticket volume for IT teams
- Faster request completion for app and development teams
- Clear governance and visibility across environments
- More satisfaction and productivity from internal users
- Greater ability to scale automation
With these distinct advantages, it’s no surprise that as many as 80% of enterprises are expected to adopt orchestration technology by 2025.
Final Thoughts
The technology behind enterprise IT orchestration has progressed far beyond gluing scripts together. With the right tool, your organization can create completely scalable systems that simplify automations across teams and grant access to self-service tools that help everyone operate smoothly.
Is your IT team struggling to manage a constant onslaught of tickets and slowdowns? If so, then it’s time to consider orchestration as a solution.
To see how Intelliflow enables self-service automation, get in touch with our team today.
