Ansible Consulting

Ansible is an open-source software automation tool used for configuration management, application deployment, and task automation across multiple systems and environments

With the rise of Infrastructure-as-Code tools for provisioning infrastructure (such as Terraform), and Orchestration tools for running containers (such as Kubernetes), the need for Configuration Management decreased as it was used mostly to configure Operating Systems and provision resources.

However, there are still use-cases where companies manage the servers' Operating System directly, and they do so using Configuration Management tools.

A number of examples where managing the servers directly is required:

1. Bare-Metal or On-Premise servers
   Can't provision infrastructure using Infrastructure-as-Code tools (such as Terraform), and can't use fully-managed services for orchestration such as Kubernetes.
   In such cases Configuration Management tools will be used to manage groups of servers, install the applications' dependencies & configuration, and perhaps even install an orchestration tool such as Kubernetes.
2. Specific system requirements
   A given company might choose not to use an orchestration tool as a result of specific system requirements.
   An example would be a company that provides an SDK that communicates with the company's servers, and is implemented in clients' apps and systems, with a requirement by the clients that the SDK takes less than 5ms to respond.
   In that case the networking toll orchestration systems like Kubernetes have on every request will be unacceptable, and so that company will be forced to optimize for a very simple network topology with minimal "hops" between different parts of the system.

There is also the case where companies started with Configuration Management as their main way of building a platform for the developers, and the coupling to the Configuration Management tool became too complicated to be worth "untangling" in the short-term or even mid-term.

As the need for automation tools rises, Ansible has many advantages to offer:

• Ansible is easy to learn and use, with a simple, human-readable language and a clear, organized structure for tasks and playbooks
• It is highly flexible and can be used for a wide range of automation tasks, from simple command execution to complex multi-tier deployments
• Ansible is agentless, which means it does not require any additional software to be installed on managed systems
• It uses SSH for communication, making it secure and easy to set up, with no firewalls or additional ports to open
• Ansible can be integrated with other tools, such as Jenkins for continuous integration and delivery, and can be extended through the use of modules and plugins
• It has a large and active community of users and developers, providing a wide variety of resources, documentation, and support
• Ansible is platform independent and can be run on Windows, Linux, and macOS, and supports a wide range of operating systems and devices.

Our past experience using Ansible on multiple projects includes:

• Implemented automated provisioning of servers on AWS, reducing server setup time from days to minutes
• Utilized Ansible for configuration management of servers, resulting in a more consistent and reliable infrastructure
• Deployed multiple applications and services using Ansible, including rolling updates and rollbacks for seamless and efficient deployments
• Implemented automated scaling of infrastructure based on load and resource usage, improving cost efficiency and performance
• Integrated Ansible with Jenkins for continuous integration and delivery, streamlining code changes and deployments
• Hardened servers and infrastructure using Ansible to comply with security and regulatory standards
• Automated monitoring and remediation of infrastructure and application issues, resulting in faster resolution times and improved uptime
• Created custom Ansible scripts and modules to automate specific tasks and processes, increasing efficiency and reducing manual labor
• Provisioned development and test environments using Ansible, resulting in faster and more consistent environments
• Implemented automated disaster recovery and backups using Ansible, improving data protection and recovery times.

Some of the things we can offer you with Ansible:

• Use Ansible to set-up the configuration, files, and processes of newly provisioned VMs
• Manage the execution of Ansible using Jenkins
• Hierarchically configure multiple environments using Ansible's templating
• Adopt best-practices to optimize the performance, stability and modularity of your Ansible codebase
• Utilize Ansible in conjunction with Jenkins for automated continuous integration and deployment
• Incorporate Ansible into a Kubernetes infrastructure for streamlined container orchestration
• Implement Ansible for infrastructure provisioning in conjunction with Terraform
• Implement Ansible in conjunction with Prometheus and Grafana for real-time monitoring and visualizing of IT infrastructure
• Integrate Ansible with Slack for streamlined communication and collaboration within the DevOps team
• Utilize Ansible in combination with GitLab for end-to-end automation of the software development lifecycle
• Incorporate Ansible as a configuration management tool in conjunction with Docker for containerized application deployment