Generally speaking, CFEngine and Ansible can be used to solve the same problems, but their approaches are different. In this blog post I’d like to discuss the different approaches, their consequences, some advantages of each tool, and even using them together.
Security is paramount in today's digital world. Bad actors can use sensitive data to wreak havoc across thousands of machines in minutes if organizations do not have a solid cybersecurity strategy. Compliance requirements and regulations are increasingly calling for key management and strong encryption as part of a business's cybersecurity strategy. These are no longer optional but mandatory security requirements as DevOps also gains in popularity for agile development and application deployment.
Most of you are familiar with the roles and profiles method of writing and classifying Puppet code. However, the roles and profiles method doesn’t have to exist only in your control repository. In fact, as I’ve been developing Puppet code centered around compliance, I’ve found that adapting the roles and profiles method into a design pattern to Puppet modules makes the code more auditable, reusable, and maintainable!
Moving to the cloud brings benefits such as reduced infrastructure costs, increased scalability, and added redundancy. As your company takes advantage of the cloud, you may follow the trend to automate both the creation and destruction of cloud resources.
The sheer number of cyberattacks launched against organizations every year is massive and growing. If you’re a security analyst working in a SOC or security team, tasked with defending your organization, that means you’re getting bombarded by many more attacks than the recorded numbers above would suggest. These attacks translate into security alerts — fired from your various security tools — that you must investigate and resolve.
Today’s CIOs and IT organizations have a challenging juggling act. On the one hand, they’re leading digital transformations and investing in customer experience, analytics, application modernizations, cloud migrations, and experiments in AI and IoT. On the other hand, they must reduce costs, drive efficiencies, and improve the reliability, security, and performance of business-critical applications and systems.
I’m really pleased to announce Puppet’s new Scaling DevOps Service, a pop-up consultancy inside Puppet designed to advise businesses on how to automate, streamline, and scale DevOps practices. This service was established as a result of conversations with dozens of customers who all stagnated in their DevOps evolution and turned to us for advice on how to scale that wall.
For Windows teams that adopt a DevOps approach, augmenting their native toolset (GPO, SCCM, PowerShell) can offer reliable and repeatable processes that successfully affect change. This quick overview highlights how Puppet Enterprise can complement existing Windows tools for better visibility and transparency across the automation processes.
