SOAPs: How workload automation is evolving according to Gartner® workload automation trends

Learn about the evolution of job scheduling and workload automation solutions into Service Orchestration and Automation Platforms (SOAPs).

Changes to IT environments and processes have continued to skyrocket in recent years. Digital transformation initiatives are now characterized by cloud adoption, workload automation (WLA) and process orchestration across complex ecosystems.

As a result, the automation strategies and tools you choose for enterprise use cases must evolve. Traditional approaches and cloud automation solutions can’t meet the needs of the new IT environment and the changing face of business.

Let’s take a look at the future of automation, according to Gartner, and the key role of SOAPs.

A new world of IT operations

Organizations have embraced new technologies to deliver the cost reduction and improved operational performance promised by digital transformation. Self-contained on-premises data centers have shifted to containerized infrastructures and multi-cloud or hybrid cloud environments. New business applications and services have also expanded the breadth of most companies’ digital infrastructures, as APIs and web services enable easier and faster connectivity with traditional ERPs and other enterprise applications. And many organizations have increased their use of big data for machine learning, artificial intelligence and analytics.

These technological changes also reflect a shift in business and IT team priorities, as CIOs, IT professionals and automation software all play a big role in improving customer experience and competitive differentiation. Organizations need greater agility and innovation from their IT and Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) leaders for IT process optimization and to achieve value-based KPIs, rapid time-to-market and profitability.

Business leaders are reacting by making significant changes to IT automation strategies and workflows. In the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for SOAP report, Gartner analysts Hassan Ennaciri and Daniel Betts state:

By 2029, 90% of organizations that currently deliver workload automation will be using Service Orchestration and Automation Platforms to orchestrate workloads and data pipelines in hybrid environments across IT and business domains.

They also share that the SOAP market is expected to grow to an estimated $4.9 billion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.7%. 

Why workload automation must evolve

Traditional WLA solutions evolved from job scheduling tools. While WLA delivers on the key values of operational efficiency, human error reduction and cost savings, its initial design still carries many limitations in functionality.

In traditional workload automation, workflows are still managed by careful coordination of scheduled tasks. However, customer expectations for responsiveness and competitive differentiation require business tasks to run in near-real time. 

Workload automation capabilities have also traditionally been focused on core workflows around ERPs or other siloed technical or operational domains, with many organizations operating multiple workload automation tools independently. This type of automation leaves gaps that lead to inefficiency, errors and manual processes, with no clear visibility into the performance of the overarching business processes the automation is intended to support.

The inability to deploy flexible WLA strategies also impedes business growth. Without collaboration and automation inside and outside of IT, business and IT teams face siloed capabilities.

In all these cases, the limitations of the traditional approach to workload automation prevent IT and I&O leaders and teams from shifting their automation strategy to focus on the higher-value goals of innovation, agility and customer service.

Gartner SOAP model for workload automation

According to Gartner analysis, the model for workload automation must adapt to address these strategic and operational shifts. 

Fundamentally, they believe that the scope of workload automation must expand both horizontally and vertically to deliver automation of a full business process, where each business process is viewed not as a set of discrete tasks but a complete cross-platform service coordinated from end to end.

SOAPs adapt to new use cases for data pipelines, application architectures and cloud-native infrastructure. This expands the role of traditional workload automation and complements and integrates with DevOps toolchains. The result? Enhanced operational efficiency, standardized processes and cost savings, all while providing customer-focused agility.

In the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for SOAP report, Gartner identifies six mandatory features that differentiate SOAPs from traditional IT workload automation and will be essential for business and IT operations.

• Management of workloads in complex technology and deployment topologies: This includes supporting mission-critical workload automation of business processes in various combinations and configurations of internally developed applications. It also involves supporting commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products and infrastructure deployments, including on-premises, cloud, colocation, software as a service (SaaS) and edge locations.
• End-to-end operational continuity: This includes request management, integration between IT software platforms and end-user enablement, data pipeline orchestration, citizen developer enablement and DevOps pipeline integration.
• Broad integration and extensibility: This includes the ability to integrate with and incorporate software and infrastructure technology landscapes that span from the cloud to enterprise applications.
• Flexible workflow design: This includes providing a visual workflow designer, a code-based designer and a library to create and reuse workflow templates. Additionally, it needs to support version control and collaboration, allowing multiple users to work on workflows simultaneously and track changes.
• Intelligent remediation and resilience: This ensures workflow stability by detecting errors, triggering recovery actions such as retries or rollbacks, and minimizing disruptions. Robust logging and alerts enable rapid diagnosis and resolution, maintaining reliability and data integrity.
• Governance: To support self-service, platforms must have embedded security guardrails that automatically enforce compliance, role-based access control and encryption across every automated task.

The report also notes that “Service orchestration and automation platform providers are rapidly expanding beyond IT task automation by embedding intelligent automation into their platforms. There have been some limited vendor investments that overlap into the business orchestration and automation technologies (BOAT) market. Most vendors now offer integrated GenAI assistants to accelerate development, and many are deploying AI agents to support proactive problem determination and remediation. A few are extending this capability to agent governance. As more vendors continue to develop and improve their agentic AI capabilities, these platforms will increasingly enable orchestration of complex, end-to-end business workflows across the entire enterprise.”

Gartner 2026 Magic Quadrant™ for SOAP report

Get the complete 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for SOAP report to learn more about the SOAPs market and why Redwood was named a Leader, positioned furthest in Completeness of Vision for the third year in a row.

A unified view of the automated enterprise

The new requirements for workload automation extend its role and value beyond its traditional scope and use cases, but SOAPs do not replicate or replace other specialized IT automation software. Rather, they become a central hub that orchestrates business processes through integrations and other complementary forms of IT automation technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA), DevOps and infrastructure management toolchains.

However, IT organizations with multiple workload automation tools can and should consolidate them into a single business process automation platform to eliminate the costs, inefficiency and fragmented views that result from these separate tools.

Workload automation performs a critical role within IT operations, but it must evolve to adapt to technological advancements and changing business needs to deliver more value to the organization and its customers.

Read more about the growing importance of SOAPs — get your copy of the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for SOAP report.

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