| By Lori MacVittie |
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| September 10, 2009 12:45 PM EDT |
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437 |
Infrastructure 2.0 is not just about automation, but rather is about the orchestration of processes, which are actually two different things: the former is little more than advanced scripting, the latter requires participation and decision making on the part of the infrastructure involved. 
Automation is the process of codifying – usually through a scripting language but not always – a specific task. This task usually has one goal, though it may have several steps that have to be performed to accomplish it. An example would be “bring this server down for maintenance.” This may require quiescing connections if it is an application server, and stopping specific processes and then taking it offline. But the automation is of a specific task.
Orchestration, on the other hand, is the codification of a complete process. In the case of cloud computing and IT this can also accomplished using scripts but more often involves the use of APIs – both RESTful and SOAPy. Orchestration ties together a set of automated tasks into a single process (operational in the case of IT, business in the case of many other solutions) and may span multiple devices, applications, solutions, and even data centers. “Bring this server down for maintenance” may actually be a single task in a larger process that is “Deploying a new version of an application.”
The subtle difference between automation and orchestration is important primarily because the former is focused on codifying a concrete set of steps normally handled manually but that are done to a device or component. The latter often requires participation and decision making on the part of the infrastructure being orchestrated - the infrastructure is an active participant, a collaborator, in orchestration but is likely not in automation.
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blogWILS: Write It Like Seth. Seth Godin always gets his point across with brevity and wit. WILS is an ATTEMPT TO BE concise about application delivery TOPICS AND just get straight to the point. NO DILLY DALLYING AROUND.
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Lori MacVittie is responsible for education and evangelism of application services available across F5’s entire product suite. Her role includes authorship of technical materials and participation in a number of community-based forums and industry standards organizations, among other efforts. MacVittie has extensive programming experience as an application architect, as well as network and systems development and administration expertise. Prior to joining F5, MacVittie was an award-winning Senior Technology Editor at Network Computing Magazine, where she conducted product research and evaluation focused on integration with application and network architectures, and authored articles on a variety of topics aimed at IT professionals. Her most recent area of focus included SOA-related products and architectures. She holds a B.S. in Information and Computing Science from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay, and an M.S. in Computer Science from Nova Southeastern University.
