Automat-IT was established in 2012 after identifying a gap in the market. Automat-IT’s founder and CEO, Ziv Kashtan, says it has emerged as one of the most rapidly growing service providers for AWS, delivering outstanding DevOps solutions, Cloud Services, and round-the-clock support to startups of all sizes. Building on a strategic collaboration with Amazon, its renewed dedication lies in empowering startups to achieve accelerated success.

Speaking to Startups Magazine, Kashtan comments: “We started as a DevOps company and around four years ago we became an AWS partner. And then, in the beginning of 2022, we became a Premier Partner – which is their highest level of partnership. After that, we signed a strategic collaboration agreement. The core of the strategic agreement is expanding into Europe, focusing on startup customers.”

The reason for the focus on startups is that after working with many startups in Israel, Kashtan realised that Automat-IT had the ability to help businesses move quickly and effectively. "For startups, we moved quickly, and the effect we had was almost immediate."

“Automat-IT developed its own methodology for helping startups. We saw customers going through similar setup and growth pains and provided solutions that have already been implemented in hundreds of places.”

What is DevOps?

DevOps is an innovative software development methodology that combines software development (Dev) and information technology operations (Ops) to improve collaboration, communication, and efficiency within organisations. By placing a strong emphasis on the integration of development, testing, deployment, and operations processes, DevOps enables organisations to achieve faster and more reliable software delivery, helping them to stay ahead of the digital landscape.

Being an AWS Premier Partner

Already doing amazing work in the DevOps space, the collaboration with AWS as its Premier Partner means that Automat-IT can not only reach out and help more startups faster, but that it can do it well – and meet the highest AWS and Automat-IT standards.

“Our collaboration is very important. This strategy enables us to work together to help startups, and it opens a lot of doors for us. We know how to deliver, and that’s why our strategic collaboration with AWS works because they saw us deliver the highest quality of service according to AWS best practices.

“Automat-IT has 130 employees and we operate as a startup – being both very agile and quick to respond. We know how to rapidly implement changes to our ecosystem. When we agreed to become global, we rolled out to London and Madrid with AWS’s help, and we already have dozens of customers in each location.”

UK and European rollout

Choosing the UK and Spain was a deliberate move of the company.

“The UK has a huge startup market and that’s why we wanted to start there. Spain also has very interesting opportunities. After defining our strategy, we carried it out meticulously.”

The plan has certainly worked, and the success of Automat-IT has taken off even more rapidly than the founder could have predicted.

“The expansion has gone much better than we expected. We are running fast, and we have more and more customers. Our original plan was to add more staff to the UK and Spain offices in Q1 of 2024. However, due to the amount of customers we already have in the pipeline, we have already hired more people. Let’s just say it’s an amazing pipeline!”

Both the London and Madrid offices have locally employed staff and colleagues from HQ and different locations travel periodically to work closely with both the team and the customers they serve. This ensures that Automat-IT’s standards are imparted and upheld – further strengthening the company’s values.

However, Automat-IT doesn't just hire staff, it has its own academy where it teaches its employees how to be a DevOps engineer with the highest level of professionalism.

“Depending on the individual person, it takes between three to six months to complete the courses and become certified. Our employees complete the ‘How to become a DevOps engineer’ course, get their certification, work with a mentor, and only then start working independently with customers.”

Standing out from the crowd

Automat-IT started from day one as a DevOps company after Kashtan realised the value it could offer to customers when the concept was first created.

“From the start we worked very closely with VP R&Ds and CTOs. So, when we help companies, we have full familiarity with their needs. We are really focused. We use only AWS and work exclusively with startups.

“I think the focus, and our uniqueness, is that we started and grew as a DevOps-only company. We understand startup applications, not just the infrastructure. Many times our architects act like advisors to the CTOs of startups, and they help them adapt and grow. We’re not just coming to create an infrastructure – we help to develop the application in the right way – so the startup thinks about saving money, and how to scale. That’s what we do best.”

What benefits can DevOps bring to a startup?

• Faster time to market: DevOps promotes automation and continuous delivery, allowing companies to release software updates more frequently and reliably. This speed to market is crucial for startups looking to iterate and improve their products quickly, gain a competitive edge, and respond to customer needs faster.
• Continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD): DevOps encourages the use of automated testing, version control, and deployment pipelines, enabling teams to integrate code changes frequently and deliver them to production efficiently. CI/CD practices reduce the risk of errors, facilitate faster feedback loops, and make it easier to roll back changes if needed.
• Improved collaboration and communication: DevOps breaks down silos between development and operations teams by fostering collaboration and shared responsibility. By integrating these teams, developers gain insights into infrastructure considerations, while operations personnel gain visibility into the development process. Enhanced collaboration leads to faster problem-solving, reduced bottlenecks, and increased efficiency.
• Enhanced stability and reliability: DevOps practices focus on building a culture of quality and stability. Automated testing, continuous monitoring, and feedback mechanisms help identify and address issues early in the development cycle. By catching problems early on, companies can avoid significant disruptions and deliver more stable and reliable software.
• Scalability and flexibility: Startups often experience rapid growth, and DevOps enables them to scale their infrastructure and applications seamlessly. By utilising Cloud computing, infrastructure as code (IaC), and containerisation technologies like Docker, companies can easily adapt to changing demands, handle increased traffic, and rapidly deploy new features.
• Faster incident resolution: DevOps emphasises monitoring and observability, enabling teams to identify and resolve issues quickly. Through real-time monitoring, logs, and metrics, teams gain visibility into system behaviour and can respond proactively to incidents, minimising downtime and reducing the impact on customers.
• Cost optimisation: By automating processes, eliminating manual and repetitive tasks, and leveraging Cloud services efficiently, DevOps helps optimise costs. Startups can avoid unnecessary infrastructure expenses, scale resources as needed, and focus on delivering value to customers rather than managing infrastructure.

Overall, DevOps provides startups with the tools and practices to streamline their software development and operations, accelerate time to market, improve collaboration, increase stability, and adapt quickly to changing market needs. By adopting DevOps principles, startups can gain a competitive advantage, deliver high-quality software faster, and drive innovation in their respective industries.