Build as Code – Improve Your Accuracy with Red Hat, Ansible and realise the benefits of Automation
Chat amongst the more tech savvy in our office over the past few months has focussed around ‘Automation’ and ‘Infrastructure as Code (IaC)’… all driven by a number of exciting enterprise projects we have on the go. So, I thought it was about time I made myself familiar…
The automation tool of choice here at Centiq is Red Hat Ansible (other automation tools are of course available, but this is a goody)!
We discovered Ansible within the Open Source community and have used it alongside our wider kit bag as our automation platform for some time. The tool in its full glory is made up of the Red Hat Ansible Engine (a simple, agentless command-line tool) and Red Hat Ansible Tower (a browser based application that enables customers to control how automation is deployed and delivers the outcomes of the automation).
Ansible simplifies delivery capabilities in Configuration Management, Provisioning and Multi-Tier Orchestration, as well as the interfaces to Application services and SAP architectures (be that Red Hat or SUSE) that we commonly work with.
But let’s get down to it, what are the real benefits of automation to your business?
Well, there are many, most of which typically flourish over time and repeatability. A major headline is the ability to transform processes in quality assurance, testing and change management.
The office is buzzing with the successes that completed projects have realised in provisioning time, cost, quality, repeatability, and consistency.
The biggest noise however is around the total cost of innovation!
Most customers are cloud first, for a variety of reasons (that’s another blog entirely). But the evolution to cloud must be leveraged by considering new operating models and simplifying current layers of complexity and processes.We have always been an Agile organisation, but for many customers, this is a new philosophy.Typically we observe a trade off in most organisations between accelerating change and ensuring stability. Solving IT challenges with automation and infrastructure as code (IaC) eases that exchange.
Digital transformation is supported and pace of change targets can be met with more frequent, automated deployments at scale. Safe in the knowledge that components previously open to human error are overcome by controlled, standardised configurations.
So, in fact you could say modern IT practices such as these actually enable higher throughput of change and increased stability.
Ultimately, automation and infrastructure as code (IaC) techniques give you the capability to reimagine and revisit your traditional IT services and how they are delivered. Enabling you to drive the change agenda, whilst increasing quality, repeatability and innovation in ever increasing, complex IT environments.
Thumbs up from us!
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