2026 Gartner® Critical Capabilities for Service Orchestration and Automation Platforms
Learn why Redwood Software scored highest in four and tied for highest in one out of five Use Cases:
- IT Workload Automation
- IT Workflow Orchestration
- Data Orchestration
- Business Technologists
- DevOps Automation
Download the Report
A companion analysis to Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for SOAPs
In the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant™ for SOAP report, Redwood was named a Leader, positioned furthest in Completeness of Vision, for the third year in a row.
In the companion Critical Capabilities for SOAP report, we believe Gartner supports the investment decision-making process, expanding upon the evaluation of SOAPs with a detailed explanation of five primary Use Cases. Redwood ranked #1 in four out of five Use Cases and tied for #1 in one Use Case, receiving scores of:
- 4.69 out of 5 for IT Workload Automation Use Case
- 4.7 out of 5 for IT Workflow Orchestration Use Case
- 4.7 out of 5 for Data Orchestration Use Case
- 4.71 out of 5 for Business Technologists Use Case
- 4.65 out of 5 for DevOps Automation Use Case.
We believe Redwood’s scores in these Use Cases reflect our strength in driving business transformation across a wide variety of business needs and functions at the lowest total cost of ownership. Redwood delivers deep ERP orchestration, seamlessly migrates legacy workloads to modern hybrid environments and operationalizes emerging agentic and AI capabilities. Redwood empowers organizations to confidently automate and scale IT and business processes with its SaaS-first, composable platform with AI built into every stage of the automation lifecycle. Customers accelerate their journeys to the autonomous enterprise.
Get the 2026 Gartner Critical Capabilities for SOAP report
In this report, Gartner “provides deeper insight into providers’ product and service offerings by extending the Magic Quadrant™ analysis.”* Read the full analyst report to find out why Redwood was ranked first in four out of five Use Cases and tied for first in one Use Case. Choose the right solution to support your automation strategy, digital infrastructure and IT operations roadmap.
Gartner Critical Capabilities FAQs
What is the Gartner Critical Capabilities report?
“A Critical Capabilities document is a comparative analysis that scores competing products or services against a set of critical differentiators identified by Gartner. It shows you which products or services are a best fit in various use cases to provide you actionable advice on which products/services you should add to your vendor shortlists for further evaluation.”
What’s the difference between Critical Capabilities and Magic Quadrant?
“Critical Capabilities research complements a Gartner Magic Quadrant™ by allowing deeper insight into the providers’ product or service offerings by identifying which ones best fit various use cases. Magic Quadrants™ position vendors in a market, while Critical Capabilities provides a deeper dive into the providers’ product and service offerings. Magic Quadrants™ contain a broader analysis of the vendors in a market, while the companion Critical Capabilities directly focuses on the product/service offering. As companion research notes, they offer a market and product/service view that provides powerful insight when making technology decisions.”
What is SOAP automation?
“Gartner defines service orchestration and automation platforms as solutions that encompass the capabilities required to integrate, coordinate and manage complex workflows and processes across IT. These platforms empower infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders to design and implement end-to-end workflows by unifying workload automation, resource provisioning and data pipelines across hybrid digital infrastructures.”
Redwood Software believes this definition underscores why SOAP platforms have become central to technology investment decisions for enterprise IT leaders. As agentic AI and hybrid infrastructures grow more complex, Redwood feels the ability to unify workload automation, resource provisioning and data pipelines into a single orchestration layer is foundational to operational resilience. Redwood believes this is precisely why Gartner analysts evaluate product capabilities so closely when assessing vendors in this space — the depth and breadth of what a platform can actually do, not just what it claims, is what determines its fit for real-world enterprise environments.
Source: Gartner Peer Insights
Gartner, Inc. Magic Quadrant for Service Orchestration and Automation Platforms. Hassan Ennaciri, Daniel Betts, etl. 5 August 2026.
Gartner, Inc. Critical Capabilities for Service Orchestration and Automation Platforms. Chris Saunderson, Hassan Ennaciri, Daniel Betts, etl. 24 Aug 2026.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
These graphics were published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from https://www.redwood.com/resource/gartner-critical-capabilities-soaps/ .