I subscribe to the idea that if I have to do something more than a few times, it should be automated. The most effective technical people I know do something similar. Automation is a superpower that can speed up value delivery while reducing costs. Here are three examples.

I helped a content company launch a new product that required the content to be moved from an older platform. For months or years, this content needed to be maintained on both platforms. I built a pipeline to automate the extraction of the content from the old platform, and automatically import it into the new platform every day. We could maintain the content in the old platform and still benefit from having it on the new client. Eventually, we cut over and made the new platform the source of truth and saved time and money maintaining it in two places.

Another example involved the use of AWS cloud services and the autoscaling capabilities of the big data EMR platform. Our product was designed to run on an existing, fixed-sized cluster even though the workload varied throughout the day and week. We split the cluster into a small cluster to handle the always-on HBase needs and an autoscaled compute cluster that would grow in response to the increased workload. This automation saved over $20,000 each month through autoscaling.

A final example, I implemented a daily report on costs per product from our hosting provider. I automatically distributed the report widely to our infrastructure team and product leaders. The availability of this information allowed us to stay on top of any unexpected costs in hosting. We also used automated budget reports to inform finance of the forecasted costs. The fast feedback loop allowed us to catch tens of thousands of dollars in costs that otherwise would have been a surprise upon being invoiced.

Find ways to use automation to create value faster. Automation can deliver faster feedback, and respond quickly to save time and money. Where can you benefit from automation in your organization?