Enterprise IT organizations often ask why they need multiple orchestration engines to automate their IT processes. These organizations have typically previously purchased service desks, physical server provisioning tools, networking management tools, server management tools, etc., all of which had automation or workflow capabilities.

The answer lies in the difference between enterprise (macro) and embedded (micro) orchestration:

• Enterprise (Macro) Orchestration: automates complex IT processes that drive products that have embedded orchestration capabilities. For example, provisioning servers can include orchestrating service desks, physical provisioning, network provisioning and storage provisioning systems, all of which typically have embedded orchestration capabilities. Often, Enterprise Orchestration is called the orchestration of orchestrators.
• Embedded (Micro) Orchestration: is typically found embedded in tools that perform a specific task. For example, most service desks have some level of workflow automation for Incident escalations or change request approvals. Micro orchestration is tightly coupled with the systems that they provide automation for, and changes to those systems typically necessitate changes to the embedded workflows.

iWave Automator and iWave Storage Automator are based on the very flexible iWave Orchestration Framework which enables both to be used in an enterprise orchestration role or an embedded orchestration role.

iWave customers that require an enterprise orchestration platform can take advantage of iWave’s support of abstracted workflows and adapter architecture. iWave customers can model complex IT processes for provisioning, storage automation, automated disaster recovery, etc., that are protected from changes to their IT infrastructure. In this role, iWave becomes the customer’s orchestrator of orchestrators.

Customers also use iWave products for embedded orchestration. All iWave workflows are addressable via a “northbound” RESTful API. This enables applications (customer portals, 3rd party ITIL applications, other IT process orchestration engines, etc.) to call iWave workflows for specific automation solutions. For example, some customers implement iWave Storage Automator to automate storage administration, but use another tool (VMware Storage Automator, etc.) to automate their private cloud. Using iWave Storage Automator’s RESTful API, VMware Storage Automator can extend its VM provisioning processes to include storage provisioning via iWave Storage Automator.

iWave’s open and flexible architecture gives iWave customers maximum flexibility to use iWave products in a way that best meets their business challenges over the long term.

©2011 iWave Software LLC