July 4, 2023

Hello! My name is Laurence Cadieux, and I’m a Communication Coordinnator here at Devolutions. My role includes overseeing the content strategy and development of our blog, managing the content and communication for our VIP advocate platform “Devolutions Force,” and working closely with our PR partners around the world. I also handle our off-site content opportunities (magazines, journals, newspapers, etc.). Academically, I have a bachelor’s degree in marketing. When I’m not working, I sing in a band, and I enjoy watching my favorite movies again and again. I also love cooking, and during the pandemic, I became a bread expert — I can now bake the most amazing key lime pie on earth (if I do say so myself!). Plus, I recently discovered LEGO and there is no turning back — I’m hooked! I’m always happy to help, and you can reach me directly at lcadieux@devolutions.net.

View more posts

June Poll Result: What Do You Automate + Want Automated at Work?

Summary

Last month, we polled the Devolutions community to find out what tasks they were already automating at work, and what tasks they would like to see automated in the future. In this article, we analyze the results and reveal the poll winners.

Table of Contents

Automation Across the Nation
When You Wish Upon an (Automated) Star
Other Automation Aspirations
The Winners Are
Stay Tuned

Back in 1957, philosopher and futurist Marshall McLuhan said: “As technology advances, it reverses the characteristics of every situation again and again. The age of automation is going to be the age of 'do it yourself.'”

For the June poll question, we wanted to know how automation is enabling you to “do it yourself” in your job... or perhaps better stated: allowing you to do LESS repetitive (and often tedious) tasks in your job so that you can focus on higher-level activities and priorities.

Plus, we asked you to share what work-related tasks you expect or hope to automate in the future (think of it like an “automation wish list”).

Automation Across the Nation

Here is a summary of what community members are currently automating. Entries with a * were mentioned multiple times.

Updating software and patching*
Backups and recovery tests*
User lifecycle management (creation, deletion, etc.)*
Environment monitoring*
Regression tests (after patching)
Deployments
Load tests
Password renewals
Database refreshes
Creating virtual servers
Creating customer ERP environments
Creating DNS entries
Logging and reporting
Making coffee (good one, Darko! 😊)

When You Wish Upon an (Automated) Star

There is one task in particular that multiple community members wish they could automate: software updating and patching. For those who are hoping to turn this dream into reality soon, here are some resources that can help point you in the right direction:

Other Automation Aspirations

Here are the other tasks that community members plan on, or hope to, automate in the future:

Performance reviews (yes this is actually possible — see this article at iTechPost.com)
SSH keys
Auto-remediation of issues
User access fulfilment
X-Ray scanning of trucks cross the border to detect risky goods entering the system (here’s a cool ZNet article on this!)

The Winners Are

And now, to announce the two randomly-selected poll participants who have each won a $25 Amazon gift card: congratulations DeeJay and Allfather! Please email me at lcadieux@devolutions.net to claim your prize.

Stay Tuned

For the July poll, we’re switching gears: instead of asking you to gaze at the future, we’ll be asking you to reflect on the past. That’s all we want to say for now. 😊 Stay tuned!