Networks are integral parts of IT enterprises, yet true automation of the network stack is nearly non-existent. When organizations are automating networks, they’re using proprietary vendor-specific tooling that requires significant training to use.
Long, detailed, and complex Methods of Procedure (MOPs) have to be manually managed, and often result in delays and reduced organizational agility. The result has been that networking teams are increasingly isolated from the emerging DevOps revolution, which can slow process modernization efforts because of the manual tasks required to manage networks.
Today’s network operations teams typically do everything manually, and need automation to provide:
- Configuration automation of the network stack from system to access to core services
- Test and validate existing network state
- Continuous compliance to check for network configuration drift
Automating your network with Ansible is easy
Ansible’s simple automation framework means that previously isolated network administrators can finally speak the same language of automation as the rest of the IT organization, extending the capabilities of Ansible to include native support for both legacy and open network infrastructure devices. Network devices and systems can now be included in an organization's overall automation strategy for a holistic approach to application workload management.
With Ansible, your network teams will:
- Use the same simple, powerful, and agentless automation framework IT operations and development are already using
- Use a data model (a playbook or role) that’s separate from the execution layer (Automation Execution Environments) that easily spans heterogeneous network hardware
- Benefit from a wide variety of community and vendor-generated playbook and role content to help accelerate network automation projects
Learn more about Network Automation with Ansible.
Network Automation with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Red Hat® Ansible® Automation Platform helps teams manage complex network deployments by adding control, knowledge and delegation to Ansible-powered environments. Simply put, the Ansible Automation Platform is the best way for teams to run Ansible.
Every team in your organization will benefit from Automation Controller a component within the automation platform. For Network teams, the automation platform enables:
- Security: Store Network Credentials
- Delegation: Using Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
- Power: Leverage the Automation Controller API
- Control: Schedule Jobs for Automated Playbook Runs
- Flexibility: Launch Job Templates Using Surveys
- Integrations: Leverage Automation Controller Integrations like Version Control
- Compliance: Run Jobs in Check Mode for Audits
NETWORK AUTOMATION WITH AUTOMATION EXECUTION ENVIRONMENTS
Red Hat® Automation Execution Environments is a fully supported product built on the simple, powerful, and agentless foundational capabilities derived from the Ansible project. Using Automation Execution Environments, developers and network operations teams can get to automating quickly with support for the underlying execution engine and core modules.
