Spotlight

Report:

The Forrester Wave™: Infrastructure Automation, Q1 2023

How does Forrester define the Infrastructure Automation market in 2023?

Infrastructure automation investments are fragmented across many tools as no single solution can serve all needs across all technologies and use cases. Firms invest in multiple automation tools to serve scenarios across app developers, infrastructure pros, and security and compliance leaders. Leading platforms aim to simplify this landscape, but most tools remain disparate. This evaluation assesses 11 significant providers across 30 criteria to help tech leaders select the right infrastructure automation solution for their needs.

Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Infrastructure Automation, Q1 2023 in 2023

How did the Infrastructure Automation market evolve in 2023?

What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?

What are the common features of top products in the Infrastructure Automation space?

No common features specified.

Scope Exclusions

Inclusion Criteria

Vendors must, among other requirements:

Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting

Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting

FAQs

Q: What does this research cover?

A: This research evaluates 11 infrastructure automation providers against 30 criteria grouped into three categories: current offering, strategy, and market presence. It provides detailed analysis of vendor strengths, weaknesses, and positioning to help technology leaders understand the infrastructure automation market landscape and select the right provider for their specific needs.

Q: Who should use this research?

A: Tech leaders, infrastructure professionals, app developers, and security and compliance leaders should use this research when evaluating infrastructure automation solutions. It helps organizations identify providers that can manage heterogeneity, operate beyond servers, extend automation beyond IT, address skill gaps, and provide recommendations on what to automate. The research is particularly valuable for companies seeking to consolidate disparate automation tools and implement full-stack automation across servers, storage, network, and security layers.

Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?

A: To be included in this Infrastructure Automation Forrester Wave, vendors must: (1) Provide a comprehensive single solution that may include multiple integrated products, (2) Have a generally available offering as of November 8, 2022, (3) Support automation of infrastructure beyond their own, (4) Have the ability to automate server infrastructure including bare metal, virtual machines, and containers, (5) Generate sufficient interest from Forrester clients, and (6) Have annual product revenue of $10 million or more.

Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?

A:

  • Lack of a comprehensive single solution offering
  • Solution not generally available by the evaluation cutoff date (November 8, 2022)
  • Only automates vendor's own infrastructure without broader support
  • Cannot automate server infrastructure (bare metal, VM, container) tasks
  • Insufficient client interest from Forrester's customer base
  • Annual product revenue below $10 million threshold

Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?

A:

  • Manage heterogeneity and operate beyond servers - Tools should manage multiple technology stacks with similar capabilities and operate across all layers including storage, network, and security
  • Offer recommendations on what to automate and why - Solutions should suggest what to automate with reasoning behind recommendations
  • Extend purview beyond IT and address skill gaps - Look for ease of operations, learning curve, and ramp-up metrics. Should help infrastructure pros onboard new tech faster, connect to DevOps tool chains for app developers, and enable security/compliance with minimal resources
  • Support for heterogeneous environments across multiple vendors
  • Integration capabilities with existing DevOps and IT operations tools
  • Governance and compliance management capabilities
  • Community support and ecosystem strength
  • Vendor's product vision and execution roadmap alignment with business needs

Q: How has the Infrastructure Automation market evolved in 2023?

A:

  • Business and tech teams buy many technologies from many tech vendors
  • No single automation solution can serve all needs across all technologies and use cases
  • Firms invest in multiple disparate automation tools to serve all use cases
  • Individual automation tools yield results, but multiple disparate tools undermine business requirements
  • Full-stack automation is needed to deliver true end-to-end automation
  • Ability to drive automation for storage, network, and security stacks is relatively low
  • Most common challenge is lack of skills
  • Need for automation recommendations on what to automate and why
  • Extending automation purview beyond IT to address skill gaps

Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?

A: Strength of Current Offering evaluates the vendor's existing product capabilities across infrastructure management, integration, governance, deployment, dashboards, and community support. It measures what the solution can do today. Strength of Strategy assesses the vendor's future direction through product vision, execution roadmap, planned enhancements, innovation roadmap, supporting services, commercial model, and partner ecosystem. It measures where the vendor is heading and their ability to execute on that vision.

Reference

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