Information technology (IT) is a major part of every company. Every enterprise of a significant size likely has staff dedicated to IT operations. In this age, you can hardly run a company without interacting with the digital world, and IT specialists have become more important than ever.
1. Best for robotic process
2. Best for ITSM
3. Best for endpoint management
4. Best for large businesses
5. Best for Azure users
6. FAQs
7. How we test
IT operations involve a lot of work and effort. It starts from mundane tasks like setting up computers and keeping their operating systems updated to complex ones like managing devices remotely and configuring the internal network according to custom specifications. The tasks can be too overwhelming for staff, which is why many companies now employ IT automation tools to make things easier.
IT automation deals with systems that handle repeatable and mundane technical tasks. Automation platforms perform the simple work that humans would have otherwise spent much time doing over and over again.
There are a lot of IT automation systems out there, with each having different specialties. It can be challenging to pick the best ones, but that’s why we’re here. We tested different IT automation platforms to identify the best ones. We narrowed our list based on important factors including pricing, ease of use, customer support, features, etc. After reading this review, it should be easy to make a good choice.
We've also featured the Best IT asset management tools.
The best IT Automation software of 2024 in full:
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Best for robotic process
UiPath is the world’s most popular robotic process automation (RPA) tool, enabling enterprises to automate many IT tasks and free up time and effort to put them to use elsewhere.
UiPath offers broad automation features. You can build and deploy different types of robots. The platform even comes with ready-made robots designed for various use cases, e.g., healthcare, finance, manufacturing, etc. A good example is using robots to process invoices and vendor payments and generate accounting reports.
A good thing about UiPath is that you don’t need deep coding experience to create robots on the platform. It offers a drag-and-drop interface to create robots by simply moving modules from one place to another. Your coding expertise still helps to create advanced robots, but it’s not necessary, unlike with many rival RPA platforms.
UiPath offers excellent customer support. You can contact a human support representative whenever you want and you also have access to a large collection of user guides, manuals, and video tutorials concerning all aspects of the platform. The drawback is that UiPath is pretty expensive, starting at $420 monthly.
Best for IT service management (ITSM)
SysAid is a platform designed to automate IT service management tasks. It utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to help enterprises automate their IT tasks and free up time they can use elsewhere.
For instance, SysAid offers ticket automation; it can automatically prioritize your IT tickets and send them to the right personnel that'll take care of the problem. It prioritizes tickets according to your pre-programmed instructions and what the AI system learns from studying your usage.
You can also automate repetitive IT tasks, e.g., resetting printers, granting access to software, and transferring files. You can use this platform to automatically onboard new employees and get them familiar with your IT setup. You’ll get a full audit trail of the automated actions that you can review for compliance and security purposes.
SysAid doesn’t have standard pricing. Your bill depends on the features you want and your custom IT infrastructure, so you’ll have to contact the company’s sales team for a quote. There’s no free plan but there’s a free trial period to test the features before making your final purchase decision.
Best for endpoint management
NinjaOne is popular remote monitoring and IT management platform. It’s very good for automating endpoint management, which refers to managing and supervising devices connected to a network.
This platform lets you write automation scripts to handle a lot of behind-the-scenes IT tasks. For example, you can write scripts to automatically back up files at specific times for each connected computer or a script to automatically update antivirus software when required. If you’re not good at programming, you can use the drag-and-drop interface to create automations.
NinjaOne's scripting engine works in various programming languages, including Javascript, ShellScript, Powershell, etc., and you can automate almost anything on a macOS or Windows operating system. You can control what devices to deploy the automation on. For instance, you can run automation for individual devices or for entire organizations and dynamic groups.
NinjaOne is more than just endpoint management software. It offers broad IT service management features for enterprises. The drawback is that there’s a steep learning curve if you want to utilize most of the platform’s features.
Best for large businesses
Atera is a remote monitoring and management software. It enables IT teams to stay on top of their technical infrastructure and ensure that things are always in good shape.
This platform incorporates artificial intelligence to help IT personnel automate a lot of tasks. The AI system can analyze common ticket requests and craft intelligent responses (though not always accurate). This feature helps you cut down on your ticket response and management time. AI can answer simple inquiries while your IT staff focuses on the more complex ones. The AI system can even tag and prioritize tickets for the IT staff to handle.
You can generate automation scripts using Atera's AI system. The platform comes with over 1,000 ready-made scripts but you can generate additional ones. Atera gives you deep visibility into all devices connected to your network, and you can automate software updates and patches.
This tool is very user-friendly, with an intuitive interface that’s easy to understand and navigate. It also has mobile apps, which makes it convenient to use on the go.
Best for Azure users
Cloud computing is a major part of IT operations nowadays. Many enterprises are migrating from on-premise IT infrastructure to the cloud, and Microsoft Azure is one of the main cloud computing providers they choose.
Microsoft's System Center makes it easy to control and manage your IT infrastructure. You can manage all your Azure infrastructure from one place and automate a lot of tasks. For example, you can automatically monitor and troubleshoot your servers at specific periods to detect any issues before they morph into something more serious. You can allocate virtual machines depending on demand instead of renting unnecessary server space with hopes of future demand.
Microsoft doesn’t offer a free plan for System Center, which is a disadvantage. Pricing can also run up to thousands of dollars annually, which makes it suitable for large organizations with significant IT budgets.
A good thing about System Center is that it also enables you to manage on-premise IT infrastructure (servers and PCs) and not just cloud-based ones only.
Best IT automation tool FAQs
How to choose an IT automation platform
Cost
Cost is the first thing to consider when choosing any software. You need to choose something that you can afford in the long term. Pricing for automation tools usually depends on the number of tasks and how big your IT infrastructure is, so it should be easy to estimate how much you’ll pay beforehand. Always read the fine print to see if there are any hidden costs and check if there’s a free trial to test the features before making your final decision.
Ease of use
Your automation platform should be easy to use and navigate. It should have an intuitive interface that a layman can understand. Complex interfaces can frustrate users and cause costly mistakes.
Customer support
Things can go wrong at any time, and you’ll need external help to solve your issues. Ensure you choose an IT automation platform with a solid reputation regarding customer service; check user reviews to confirm this. You should be able to contact a human support representative via email, telephone, or live chat when you need one. You should also have access to additional support resources such as user guides and video tutorials.
Essential features of an IT automation tool
1. Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
Robotic process automation (RPA) entails building and deploying software robots to handle repetitive tasks. For example, you can build bots to scrape websites and extract contact information or create bots to process employee payroll based on the number of hours worked.
Your IT automation platform should let you build RPA bots, preferably with a drag-and-drop interface.
2. Incident management
You should be able to manage technical incidents with ease. Your tool should give automatic alerts whenever it detects an IT incident and contact the personnel assigned to that issue beforehand. This feature takes away a lot of stress during the inevitable IT incident.
3. Endpoint management
The tool should enable IT staff to manage multiple devices connected to the enterprise network and automate many tasks. For example, you should be able to install software automatically on all connected devices. It could be a new software recommended by management or an update to an already installed software. You can also automatically check for viruses and security bugs and deploy fixes immediately.
Endpoint management automation makes IT management much easier for everyone, especially in large organizations.
How we test
We test by evaluating numerous factors. To start with, we look at the feature set, the range of tools available, and what size of businesses this would be ideal for. We consider how easy the setup is, the simplicity of the interface, and whether there's sufficient documentation and tutorials for users to utilize necessary options optimally.
We assess how well the service integrates with other relevant apps, and check the overall scalability of the service. We also analyze whether there are collaboration features for multiple users, and lastly, we judge the quality of the customer service and the different pricing plans available.
Read more on how we test, rate, and review products on TechRadar.
We've listed the best IT asset management software.
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