Choosing the right infrastructure automation tools is a key part of automation success. This guide shows how to identify tools that will build trust and foster adoption in your organization.

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When it comes to infrastructure automation, success is rarely about any single tool. It’s about building an automation stack that works together as a system.

Choosing the right components for that stack—whether you’re buying, integrating, or building—is one of the most important decisions you’ll make.

That old saying about only being as strong as your weakest link is absolutely true when it comes to stack-building. Just one problematic tool can hinder or break performance across the board.

In earlier discussions, we explored why trust is essential for automation adoption. In this post, we’ll focus on how to choose tools that support those trust-building goals, and help your automation stack succeed.

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Should you build or buy your infrastructure automation tools?

A common question when evaluating infrastructure automation tools is whether to build in-house or buy off-the-shelf.

The answer depends on your needs but one principle holds true: build what you must, integrate what you can.

At OpsMill, we ran into this firsthand. We had a homegrown system for running background tasks in Infrahub, but it was difficult to provide good visibility or reporting. After evaluating options, we integrated Prefect, a tool designed for orchestrating and monitoring complex workflows.

The switch gave us a much better experience: more visibility into task execution, better failure handling, and new capabilities we couldn’t have built easily on our own. Plus, since Prefect used a stack similar to ours, integration was smooth.

Many teams underestimate how long and costly a project it is to build automation frameworks from scratch. Unless you’re operating at the scale of a Google or Meta, it’s smarter to leverage existing tools where possible, and focus your development on what’s truly unique to your business.

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Key features of great infrastructure automation tools

When you’re evaluating a new infrastructure automation tool, or deciding whether to build one, it helps to look beyond basic functionality.

You’ll also want to think about how the tool fits into your broader stack, and whether it will help you—or prevent you—from creating the trustworthy automation system you’re aiming for.

Below is a checklist of seven trust-building traits to look for. Some map directly to the 6+3+3 framework for building trust in automation (like version control and idempotency). Others, like developer experience and API quality, affect how usable and resilient your automation system will be day to day.

1. Declarative automation

Declarative tools focus on what you want the end state to be, rather than prescribing how to achieve it. This reduces operational fragility and makes automation more resilient to change.

(For more background on why this matters, see our deep dive on declarative automation.)

2. Idempotency

An idempotent system produces the same result no matter how many times you run it. That makes retries safe and workflows more reliable. Without it, every failure adds risk and uncertainty. (Idempotency is a one of three technical foundations in the 6+3+3 framework.)

3. Version control

Treating automation artifacts as code is non-negotiable. Version control enables change previews, audit history, rollbacks, and team collaboration. It’s the backbone of safe, reviewable automation.

As research from EMA shows, teams that embrace version control report better automation outcomes.

4. Testing and validation

Good tools make it easy to validate changes both before and after deployment. A system that supports continuous integration is key. Teams that consistently validate changes—as EMA research also indicates—see better adoption and fewer production issues.

5. Traceability and logging

You can’t trust what you can’t see. Tools should clearly show what happened, when, and why. Good logs and traceability improve debugging, support audits, and build trust across teams.

6. Developer experience (DX)

If a tool is hard to integrate or awkward to use, your team simply won’t use it, no matter how powerful it is. Prioritize tools with clean documentation, thoughtful interfaces, and strong user communities.

One reason we chose Prefect was its strong APIs and documentation, making it much easier to integrate than the other options.

7. Programmable interfaces

Your automation stack won’t be one-size-fits-all. APIs, SDKs, and CLIs are essential for scripting, composition, and interoperability. Tools should give you programmatic access to core functionality.

For example, with Prefect, we rarely use the UI but its API gives us the flexibility to fit it into our system seamlessly.

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Choosing tools with a system designer’s mindset

Your infrastructure automation stack isn’t a single tool. It’s a system of interconnected decisions.

When choosing components, look for ones that play well together and serve your broader trust-building goals.

In particular, think in terms of:

• Visibility: Will this tool help users understand what’s happening?
• Control: Can you manage and adapt the tool as your needs evolve?
• Safety: Does it support graceful failure and recovery?
• Adaptability: Will it integrate well with your other systems?

Choosing well requires you to think like a system designer, not just a buyer.

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Your final checklist for evaluating infrastructure automation tools

Here’s a recap of the tool characteristics to look for and why they’re important to the success of your infrastructure automation system.

If you’re serious about automation, these aren’t nice-to-haves. They’re foundational. If a tool is missing even one, it will be hard to fit it effectively into your stack.

Use this checklist in your automation tool evaluations and discussions. It will help ensure that every addition to your stack supports your long-term success.

✅ Does the tool support declarative automation?
✅ Does it support idempotent behavior?
✅ Does it have version control?
✅ Can you test and validate changes easily?
✅ Is traceability and logging strong?
✅ Is the developer experience solid?
✅ Does it offer good APIs or programmable interfaces?

If you’re new to some of the ideas covered in this post, I recommend reviewing the 6+3 framework for building trust in automation. That framework, together with this checklist, will help you make better choices at every level of your automation design.