Automation & Zero-touch IT: The Keys to Optimizing SaaS
Could automation and zero-touch IT help extract more value from Saas?
SaaS sprawl has historically been a challenge for IT, but the rise of zero-touch automation principles shows promise for a brighter future, observes David Politis, CEO, BetterCloud.
For the first time in 10 years, businesses have slowed their frenetic pace of SaaS adoption. Based on recent research by BetterCloud, the average enterprise today uses 130 SaaS applications. While that represents an 18 percent increase from last year, it’s worth noting that it’s the slowest annual growth rate since we began tracking SaaS usage in 2012—and it will likely continue to trend downward. Let’s examine why.
The pace of companies adopting new SaaS applications has been fast and furious in the last couple of years. But this trend created a number of challenges. One, SaaS sprawl burdened many employees who had to learn and constantly switch between new apps. Two, the spike in number of applications brought about serious governance and security challenges for IT. Lastly, it created waste; many applications were never fully deployed, rolled out and adopted by users.
Fast forward to today, these challenges, compounded by the current macroeconomic headwinds, are driving greater scrutiny on SaaS spend. And the decelerated growth in SaaS adoption is just an early sign. We’re entering into a more deliberate phase of SaaS adoption and optimization as an industry.
In the coming years, we are going to see the total number of applications used in organizations plateau. The priority in 2023 and beyond will be to better integrate, manage, govern and extract maximum value from the applications that are in place today. We are going to see more organizations continue to embrace automation with a goal of achieving zero-touch IT—the peak point at which the number of manual “touchpoints” by IT support is as close to zero as possible.
See more: Four Insights to Take Your SaaS Pricing to the Next Level
The 2023 IT Mandate: Automation
Automation of processes is hardly a new concept, and IT pros believe it will be a big part of their future. In the research, an overwhelming 86 percent see automation as critical to overcoming SaaS operations (SaaSOps) and security challenges.
Many have started their journey and are already reporting efficiencies. Of those we surveyed, 71 percent already automated at least one help desk process, like onboarding or password resets. Additionally, 43 percent already have a dedicated SaaSOps automation role or team, and another 23 percent plan to establish one.
But if the ultimate goal is to reach peak automation, there’s still much work to do.
Managing SaaS Sprawl with Zero-touch IT
At most organizations, many workflows can be automated, replacing all their manual IT touchpoints. Many in the industry call this approach to automation “zero-touch IT” and agree that it’s a top priority. Our findings show 72 percent believe zero-touch automation is the future of SaaSOps, and 69 percent are working toward it.
While it may seem daunting, the journey to achieving zero-touch IT is not out of reach. It does require investment in time, technology and people, however. And once you get there, the efficiencies will be apparent. Let’s break these benefits down by category.
Zero-touch IT helps companies manage their software applications much more effectively. IT groups have historically gotten bogged down in the manual execution of tasks that are complicated and tedious, despite being basic and common. Two processes cited as top concerns for IT professionals, onboarding new employees and offboarding departing employees, are concrete examples.
But managing the user lifecycle of an employee doesn’t just start at onboarding and stop at offboarding. Many changes take place during an employee’s time at the organization—promotions, changes in departments, password resets, new project assignments, etc. And every single time an event like this occurs, some type of action, like giving or revoking access to new files, elevating access rights or taking security steps to prevent unauthorized access, is required. This is a lot to keep track of, especially once you multiply these steps across your entire SaaS stack for multiple users. Automating all of the necessary steps—or at least some of them—will make the user lifecycle management experience much more streamlined and efficient. Not only that, but you’ll reduce the chances of making an error from repeatedly retyping employee details.
Additionally, going zero-touch with onboarding means that new employees will contribute value on Day One. They’ll have almost immediate access to all the devices, apps, data, and groups they need to be fully productive. Automating repetitive onboarding steps also does away with scads of request tickets and frees up IT for more strategic work.
Governing SaaS Sprawl
Once upon a time, SaaS security would have solely fallen on security teams. Not so today. Based on the research, 81 percent of IT professionals now say they are responsible for protecting SaaS and sensitive data. Further, 43 percent added a new SaaS app that stores sensitive data in the last 12 months.
This is why zero-touch principles have become so critical to IT; it’s the key to securing and protecting applications and the data in them.
Here’s a real-world scenario. Imagine you’re offboarding 100+ departing employees. Given this task is most often done manually, a handful of those employees are overlooked and therefore retain access to the company’s systems. By automating the offboarding process, you can ensure you quickly cut off access to every employee, leaving the company with zero room for error, reducing the risk of a data breach or other potentially destructive action.
Or imagine an employee externally sharing a file that contains sensitive business information. This immediately exposes said data. By automating the data detection process, IT now receives an alert every time such a vulnerability is identified. IT can then automate intervention to immediately stop any further data exfiltration and/or restrict file access.
As more applications are deployed, more high-value data gets spread across them, creating new opportunities for bad actors to breach systems and exfiltrate (steal) information. IT groups recognize that automating SaaSOps strengthened their cybersecurity, with 26% citing better compliance or data security as an outcome.
The bottom line is that zero-touch IT can provide a more comprehensive and up-to-date understanding of what employees are doing with their corporate and shadow applications and their data in order to uphold security standards.
Boosting Operational Efficiency
Nearly a third (32 percent) of IT professionals cite improved operational efficiency as the top benefit of automating SaaS management. Zero-touch IT helps organizations do more with less and ultimately save money.
For example, automation can help IT extract insights into the utilization of apps to determine which resources are needed and which are expendable. IT can then find functionality overlaps between different apps, as well as orphan and ghost apps. This often allows IT to consolidate similar apps. It becomes simple to identify underused applications that do not deliver sufficient value and then discontinue them.
Shockingly, two-thirds of SaaS apps are unsanctioned at organizations. Automation can help curb shadow IT by catching unauthorized applications in use. But shadow IT isn’t always a bad thing if it’s under control. With the right insights, IT can better understand what applications their employees need to be productive.
The Future Is Brighter With Zero-touch IT
SaaS growth may be slowing, but at most enterprises, the SaaS stack remains large, with many IT pros (59% to be exact) citing management challenges.
But achieving zero-touch, IT won’t happen overnight. It’s a journey.
Every application has its own idiosyncrasies, protocols and processes. In many cases, applications hold or share sensitive business data. Most organizations are tasked with carrying out all tasks related to the SaaS stack manually, a seemingly impossible task.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel. This coming year we will consolidate, control, optimize, and protect the SaaS stack at new levels – with a little help from zero-touch IT.
At the end of the day, it’s organizations that prioritize automation that will be able to deliver more time savings, cost efficiencies, value and benefits.
What management challenges do you face with SaaS? Could zero-touch IT help? Share your thoughts with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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