Key Takeaways From Ansiblefest 2020
In this blog
The first thing you should know (and probably already do) is that Ansible 2.10 has been released. With Ansible 2.10, they have moved to a new development structure, which decouples the Ansible core development from the module development. There are several things to unpack in regards to the Ansible 2.10 release.
Automation for everyone
Ansible has always been an automation tool geared for anyone to consume and use for their automation projects. Whether we are talking about automating across a diverse set of technologies or a diverse set of technical expertise within the workforce, Ansible has been designed to be an inclusive tool to allow the developer and operations teams to work together to accomplish a shared outcome.
Improvements within the ecosystem, including the breakout of the codebase, help to continue that vision to allow different parts of the community to release on their own schedule and their own comfort level, independently of the core version of Ansible is installed.
WWT has several on-demand labs available to you across many different technology domains. Experience how easy it is to consume and build automation with Ansible is across a diverse set of technology areas:
A few of us at WWT presented at a breakout session titled Using Ansible as a common tool to meet use cases across a diverse IT organization. If you missed it, I encourage you to go back and listen to how WWT has helped many of our customers utilize Ansible in many different ways.
Learn more about where WWT was involved at AnsibleFest 2020.
A glimpse into the future
Are you curious about what additions and changes are coming to the Ansible Automation Ecosystem soon? AnsibleFest 2020 was once again the venue for announcements about what to expect in forthcoming versions of the Ansible Automation Platform and Ansible Tower.
Announcements included Private Automation Hub, Ansible Execution Environments, "Receptor" and deeper OpenShift/K8s integration.
Ansible Automation Content Management
Private Automation Hub brings the certified Red Hat and Partner content via the cloud-based Ansible Automation Hub (AAH) behind your firewalls. The hub provides an internal destination for content from Ansible Automation Hub, trusted galaxy roles and collections, internally built automation content and a container image registry for portable and reusable execution environments.
Major shifts In architecture
Architectural changes are coming to increase flexibility dramatically and enable scalability not achievable with the platform today. Red Hat and the Ansible Community are separating the control plane and execution components of Ansible.
Tired of the complexity and pain caused by managing python virtual environments for Ansible automation? Execution Environments are portable. They are container-based images containing all the Ansible execution bits and third party dependencies required for a given automation scenario.
Ansible Tower's Kubernetes deployment will see an overhaul in 2021. The deployment of Tower will move to utilize the Operator model. This will enable easier installations and allow the platform owners to extend integration capabilities to anyone building applications on top of their Kubernetes infrastructure.
Additional architecture-related announcements included a project named Receptor. It is an "automation mesh" overlay network to deploy and manage execution environments practically anywhere.
Automation required
Automation is no longer optional for organizations. To stay relevant both as an organization and as an IT professional, automation needs to be the center of every new solution and service built. WWT helps our customers educate, build and execute automation strategies. Leverage a workshop as a launch point for your automation journey.