Automation is the public cloud's true superpower

Regardless of the platform you use, automated deployments, remediation response, and daily tasks are the public cloud’s real power.

Since all providers are nothing more than a collection of APIs (I like to use the bucket of lego analogy), there’s no right answer on how to automate.

The one thing to keep in mind is that automation is a marathon and not a sprint.

If you’re getting started, it’s crucial not to overwhelm yourself with what’s possible. Instead, start with the tasks you’re already regularly performing and develop a method (or two) to remove the work from your to-do list.

Here are a few examples to help you get started:

• Automatically remove unused (or old) IAM Access Keys
• Remove old IAM users
• Clean up stale security groups
• Apply default policies to existing (and new) S3 buckets

I’d suggest picking one (or two) mundane, time-consuming or error-prone items and focus on them to start.

Here’s our approach to automation:

Another fantastic benefit of the public cloud? It’s like grade twelve English - there’s no wrong answer. Big the process (and tools) that work for you and your business objective. After that, it’s about continuous improvement.

Now get out there and automate.