# OPS10-BP07 Automate responses to events
Automating event responses is key for fast, consistent, and error-free operational handling. Create streamlined processes and use tools to automatically manage and respond to events, minimizing manual interventions and enhancing operational effectiveness.
**Desired outcome:**
+ Reduced human errors and faster resolution times through automation.
+ Consistent and reliable operational event handling.
+ Enhanced operational efficiency and system reliability.
**Common anti-patterns:**
+ Manual event handling leads to delays and errors.
+ Automation is overlooked in repetitive, critical tasks.
+ Repetitive, manual tasks lead to alert fatigue and missing critical issues.
**Benefits of establishing this best practice:**
+ Accelerated event responses, reducing system downtime.
+ Reliable operations with automated and consistent event handling.
**Level of risk exposed if this best practice is not established:** Medium
## Implementation guidance
Incorporate automation to create efficient operational workflows and minimize manual interventions.
### Implementation steps
1. **Identify automation opportunites:** Determine repetitive tasks for automation, such as issue remediation, ticket enrichment, capacity management, scaling, deployments, and testing.
1. **Identify automation prompts:**
+ Assess and define specific conditions or metrics that initiate automated responses using [Amazon CloudWatch alarm actions](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/AlarmThatSendsEmail.html#alarms-and-actions).
+ Use [Amazon EventBridge](https://aws.amazon.com/eventbridge/) to respond to events in AWS services, custom workloads, and SaaS applications.
+ Consider initiation events such as [specific log entries](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/logs/MonitoringLogData.html), [performance metrics thresholds](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/AlarmThatSendsEmail.html), or [state changes](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/config/latest/developerguide/remediation.html) in AWS resources.
1. **Implement event-driven automation:**
+ Use AWS Systems Manager Automation runbooks to simplify maintenance, deployment, and remediation tasks.
+ [Creating incidents in Incident Manager](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/incident-manager/latest/userguide/incident-creation.html) automatically gathers and adds details about the involved AWS resources to the incident.
+ Proactively monitor quotas using [Quota Monitor for AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/implementations/quota-monitor/).
+ Automatically adjust capacity with [AWS Auto Scaling](https://aws.amazon.com/autoscaling/) to maintain availability and performance.
+ Automate development pipelines with [Amazon CodeCatalyst](https://codecatalyst.aws/explore).
+ Smoke test or continually monitor endpoints and APIs [using synthetic monitoring](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/CloudWatch_Synthetics_Canaries.html).
1. **Perform risk mitigation through automation:**
+ Implement [automated security responses](https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/implementations/automated-security-response-on-aws/) to swiftly address risks.
+ Use [AWS Systems Manager State Manager](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/systems-manager-state.html) to reduce configuration drift.
+ [Remediate noncompliant resources with AWS Config Rules](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/config/latest/developerguide/remediation.html).
**Level of effort for the implementation plan:** High
## Resources
**Related best practices:**
+ [OPS08-BP04 Create actionable alerts](ops_workload_observability_create_alerts.md)
+ [OPS10-BP02 Have a process per alert](ops_event_response_process_per_alert.md)
**Related documents:**
+ [Using Systems Manager Automation runbooks with Incident Manager](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/incident-manager/latest/userguide/tutorials-runbooks.html)
+ [Creating incidents in Incident Manager](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/incident-manager/latest/userguide/incident-creation.html)
+ [AWS service quotas](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/aws_service_limits.html)
+ [Monitor resource usage and send notifications when approaching quotas](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/solutions/latest/quota-monitor-for-aws/solution-overview.html)
+ [AWS Auto Scaling](https://aws.amazon.com/autoscaling/)
+ [What is Amazon CodeCatalyst?](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/codecatalyst/latest/userguide/welcome.html)
+ [Using Amazon CloudWatch alarms](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/AlarmThatSendsEmail.html)
+ [Using Amazon CloudWatch alarm actions](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/monitoring/AlarmThatSendsEmail.html#alarms-and-actions)
+ [Remediating Noncompliant Resources with AWS Config Rules](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/config/latest/developerguide/remediation.html)
+ [Creating metrics from log events using filters](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonCloudWatch/latest/logs/MonitoringLogData.html)
+ [AWS Systems Manager State Manager](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/systems-manager-state.html)
**Related videos:**
+ [ Create Automation Runbooks with AWS Systems Manager](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQ_KahCPBeU)
+ [ How to automate IT Operations on AWS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuWj_mlyTug)
+ [AWS Security Hub CSPM automation rules ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaMfO_MERH8)
+ [ Start your software project fast with Amazon CodeCatalyst blueprints ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rp7roaoPzFE)
**Related examples:**
+ [ Amazon CodeCatalyst Tutorial: Creating a project with the Modern three-tier web application blueprint ](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/codecatalyst/latest/userguide/getting-started-template-project.html)
+ [ One Observability Workshop ](https://catalog.us-east-1.prod.workshops.aws/workshops/31676d37-bbe9-4992-9cd1-ceae13c5116c/en-US)
+ [ Respond to incidents using Incident Manager ](https://catalog.workshops.aws/getting-started-with-com/en-US/operations-management/incident-manager)