Enterprise Automation Excellence

AI is reshaping the observability market, bringing greater ability to detect patterns and predict issues that may occur in the future. In this episode, Arturo Oliver (Head of Market Strategy, ScienceLogic) joins Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke to discuss three major shifts: from reactive problem diagnosis to proactive prevention; from noise-filtering to AI-driven recommendations; and from scripted...

Transforming the business does not require expensive technology changes, it can be accomplished through business partnership and better use of existing systems and information. In this episode, Rich Corbridge (CIO, SEGRO plc) joins Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke to discuss how they are using automation and AI to significantly improve their ERP capabilities, without replacing their ERP systems. Foc...

Enterprise automation leaders must maintain reliable services supporting business and operational processes while also driving change in their organizations. In this episode, Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke discuss the challenges and opportunities of becoming a change agent, and why it is important to step forward rather than waiting for direction from above. They advocate behaving like an entrepre...

The current hype about AI has left many enterprise automation leaders feeling anxious about how they will integrate these rapidly evolving AI solutions whilemaintaining reliability and resilience. Hosts Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke recommend taking a pause to recognize that there are more similarities than differences with past waves of integrations of new technologies into automation platforms....

Enterprise IT continues to evolve rapidly as organizations look for effective ways to use AI and other automation tools to streamline their processes. In this episode, Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke discuss Tom's learnings from December's Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference. Topics include the emerging pragmatism around AI, continuous operations, managin...

Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke conduct a retrospective of EAE 2024 and 2025 episodes. Using Anthropic Claude to analyze the podcasts, they identify five dominant themes that merged from their conversations. They discuss their learnings fromlooking back at the episodes, plans for the podcast in 2026, and ideas for tools to help listeners navigate the growing library of episodes to explore specific topi...

Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke are joined by Pete Goldin (DevOps Digest). Dan and Pete discuss their recent survey of AI development and DevOps tools. The research shows high adoption rates of AI-native development tools with broad use of AI integration in core processes. This early success has created cautious optimism, however, significant governance gaps exist in many organizations. Automation...

Getting approval for new automation investments requires building a business case with a cost analysis, expected business benefit, and assessment of project complexity and risk. In this episode, Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke provideguidance on how to build a successful business case for automation initiative, highlighting the need to speak in terms of business value, particularly revenue growth,...

IBM TechExchange 2025 featured AI, Agents, Observability and other technologies that are changing the way that developers work. In this Enterprise Automation Excellence podcast, hosts Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke discuss Dan's learnings from the event and what these trends mean for developers, as well as the implications for automation, development and DevOps teams. A key theme is howthese new tools...

Enterprise automation is entering a new era defined by convergence. AI, observability, and orchestration are reshaping how automation platforms operate and how IT organizations deliver reliability and agility. While vendors move rapidly toward orchestration control planes, enterprise adoption remains measured and pragmatic—focused on governance, integration, and operational stability. Drawing on i...

While much of the focus on the value of automation systems is on the consistent and reliable execution of the schedule, the data within the automation system can also be valuable to the organization. In this Enterprise Automation Excellencepodcast, hosts Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke explore how automation systems serve as critical sources of truth for business operations. They explain that autom...

Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke discuss the evolution from traditional agents to AI-powered agents in enterprise automation software. While automation agents originally served as proxies for remote system operations, AI agents now bring capabilities that enables generative and adaptive responses. Their discussion positions AI agents as an evolution rather than revolution in automation, offering enh...

In this episode, hosts Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke explore the challenges of migrating automation software. They discuss the business and technical drivers for switching to a different automation tool, what makes these projects difficult, and why migration is occurring more frequently.  Key Points Migration frequency is increasing: Average time on workload automation tools has dropped from 12-1...

Roy Dreyfus, Senior Director of IT at Market America, discusses his 14-year automation journey with Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke on the Enterprise Automation Excellence Podcast. Roy shares how Market America has evolved from basic, disconnected automation tools to a sophisticated orchestration platform using HCL Workload Automation (HWA). Market America is now transitioning to HCL's new AI-powered U...

A successful automation strategy requires moving beyond technology-focused thinking to business outcome-driven approaches, with AI serving as an enabler rather than an end goal. In this Enterprise Automation Excellence episode, hosts Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke present a strategic framework that moves beyond technology-focused approaches to business outcome-driven automation planning.   Key Poi...

In this Enterprise Automation Excellence episode, hosts Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke discuss AI's impact on enterprise automation and orchestration. Dan takes a more optimistic stance while Tom adopts a pragmatic perspective on AI adoption timelines. They recognize that AI technologies like neural networks and machine learning are already deployed in enterprise environments, and that the current foc...

In this episode of the Enterprise Automation Excellence podcast, Dan Twing and Tom O’Rourke dive into the 2025 EMA Radar for Workload Automation and Orchestration—the most significant overhaul in the Radar’s 16-year history. They explore how three foundational technology shifts— orchestration , observability , and AI/agentic capabilities —are reshaping the automation landscape. Vendors are advanci...

In the second half of their focus on product thinking hosts Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke discuss how automation teams can apply product thinking principles to shift from operating reactively as service providers into a strategic-minded,customer value-focused organization. Key themes include managing automation asa product portfolio, developing strategic roadmaps, implementing iterative planning...

In this Enterprise Automation Excellence episode, hosts Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke explore how automation teams can adopt "product thinking" to better serve business needs and stakeholders. Rather than focusing solely on technology delivery, product thinking shifts the emphasis to understanding customer problems and working backward to solutions. This approach helps automation leaders move from re...

In this Enterprise Automation Excellence episode, hosts Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke discuss "automation myopia" - the problem of defining automation needs too narrowly, leading to suboptimal tool selection. They explore how development teams often focus on solving a narrow set of automation requirements, rather than considering end-to-end processes. The hosts advocate for broader thin...

In this episode, hosts Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke discuss the relationship between observability and automation in enterprise systems. They explore how observability tools and standards like OpenTelemetrycan improve automation orchestration by providing visibility into the entire business process ecosystem. The hosts note that while observability technology is still in early stages for automat...

In this episode, hosts Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke discuss the complex relationship between change management and automation. They explore how these two control functions must work together despite their inherent tensions--automation requires stability to function reliably, while modern business environments demand frequent changes. The conversation examines how automation teams navigate change...

Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke discuss EMA's latest research report titled "The Future of Workload Automation and Orchestration: Driving Digital Transformation with Orchestration and Generative AI". The hosts explore the evolving landscape of workload automation, highlighting how it has become a central hub for orchestration across enterprises. The conversation covers key trends including growth in th...

This episode discusses the role and evolution of Automation Centers of Excellence (CoE) in enterprises. The hosts, Dan Twing and Tom O'Rourke, explore how CoEs have become critical organizational structures for managing automation initiatives, discussing how CoEs serve as knowledge-sharing hubs, bridge gaps between technical teams and citizen developers, and help standardize automation practices....

Dan and Tom discuss Tom's observations and learnings from the 2024 Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies conference in Las Vegas.  AI and improving Infrastructure & Operations (I&O) leadership were key themes, with sessions addressing strategic and tactical approaches for technology, business, and staffing issues. The I&O outlook for 2025 and beyond was optimisti...