Systems automation and orchestration
Get expert guidance and practitioner-written tutorials to improve your organization's automation and orchestration processes, offering advice for beginners and pros alike.
Top Stories
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Feature
20 Dec 2024
Platform teams draw on DataOps, MLOps to support GenAI
GenAI calls for more rigorous data discipline than previous forms of analytics, but there are lessons platform teams can learn from existing approaches. Continue Reading
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News
18 Dec 2024
AWS, Red Hat hybrid cloud wares court VMware converts
Broadcom has softened some of its stances on VMware licensing and public cloud, but competitors stay poised to pounce on customers looking to defect. Continue Reading
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News
25 Jun 2020
Puppet unveils event-driven IT automation plans
Puppet's IT automation system Relay, now in beta, offers an event-driven take on IT workflows, but the vendor must clearly establish the product's value over competing DevOps systems. Continue Reading
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News
24 Jun 2020
HashiCorp Terraform beta brings long-awaited features
Terraform 0.13, recently released to public beta, includes support for complex infrastructure deployments that users have eagerly awaited. Continue Reading
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News
22 Jun 2020
HashiCorp shops hope new Consul service comes at lower cost
Multi-cloud hosted services planned for HashiCorp products, including Consul, Vault and Nomad, would reduce IT ops overhead, users say, but prices must be affordable. Continue Reading
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News
11 Jun 2020
DevOps pros rethink cloud cost with continuous delivery tool
Cloud cost management is a new task for developers under DevOps, and a continuous delivery add-on presents a new way to show them infrastructure inefficiencies. Continue Reading
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News
02 Jun 2020
Atlassian takes on DevOps pipeline tools integration
Pre-built hooks between Atlassian DevOps tools are in demand among IT teams that must manage an overwhelming number of cross-functional projects and vendor products. Continue Reading
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News
02 Jun 2020
Chef software broadens scope amid IT automation disruption
Chef seeks a new niche as IT automation shifts toward Kubernetes and cloud-native tools, but IT pros have many options, with some more appealing than Chef in high-scale scenarios. Continue Reading
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Video
26 May 2020
Implement compliance-as-code with this Chef InSpec tutorial
Rather than rely on manual compliance checks, IT admins can use Chef InSpec to automate the process. Watch this brief video to learn essential InSpec commands and run some practice scans. Continue Reading
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Photo Story
22 May 2020
5 IT automation examples that ops teams should implement today
IT automation use cases are plentiful and highly variegated -- but organizations should emphasize these five examples in their roadmaps. Continue Reading
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News
13 May 2020
VMware Tanzu seeks IT attention with Kubernetes security buy
VMware buys Octarine for security cred in a crowded Kubernetes management market, but some VMware shops will shift to SaaS apps rather than deal with container infrastructure. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
13 May 2020
A Terraform Registry tutorial to build and share modules
Before IT teams share Terraform modules through the tool's public registry, they must familiarize themselves with these prerequisites and technical steps. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
11 May 2020
A Kubernetes namespaces tutorial to manage cluster resources
Namespaces in Kubernetes serve several purposes -- from allowing teams to share a single cluster to enforcing resource quotas. Use this tutorial to get started with this important Kubernetes feature. Continue Reading
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News
08 May 2020
Puppet Labs CTO eyes IT automation amid COVID-19
An entirely new executive leadership team is the latest of several upheavals at Puppet Labs over the last four years, but CTO Abby Kearns says there's a clearer path ahead in 2020. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
08 May 2020
Create an AKS cluster with this Ansible and Kubernetes tutorial
IT admins familiar with Ansible can use the configuration management tool, alongside Azure Cloud Shell, to spin up a Kubernetes cluster in AKS. Continue Reading
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Opinion
05 May 2020
Remote work technologies to account for in 2020 IT budgets
In light of a crisis like COVID-19, IT organizations must amend their budgets to invest in technologies that can support remote access and foster employee collaboration. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Apr 2020
Reduce IT burdens, costs with on-premises storage as a service
Most organizations automatically associate storage as a service with the cloud -- but emerging, on-premises STaaS offerings can benefit IT ops and the business just as much, if not more. Continue Reading
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Feature
29 Apr 2020
Lean on these core Ansible features for IT automation success
These six articles break down Ansible playbooks, roles and other key concepts for IT pros who are new to the tool -- or could benefit from a refresher. Continue Reading
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News
23 Apr 2020
Infrastructure-as-code competitor challenges Terraform
Pulumi 2.0 ratchets up the heat on HashiCorp's rival Terraform IaC tool, adding policy as code, test automation and secrets management features to its mainstream language support. Continue Reading
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Tip
17 Apr 2020
Anticipate the unexpected with application capacity planning
Disasters and crises that disrupt daily routines are inevitable. Follow these app capacity guidelines to prepare IT teams for such events and maintain business capabilities. Continue Reading
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Tip
08 Apr 2020
4 components of a disaster recovery plan to prepare for a crisis
IT teams must take a proactive approach to crisis management and disaster recovery. Use these four guidelines around communication, monitoring and more to build a plan that works. Continue Reading
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News
03 Apr 2020
As Atlassian cloud push ramps up, users assess migration
Atlassian's cloud products offer sought-after enterprise features and extend integrations, but some organizations will still struggle to transition from its on-premises tools. Continue Reading
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News
03 Apr 2020
SysAid announces launch of new workflow tool, Workflow Designer
Workflow Designer uses a drag-and-drop process to make workflows easier to create with less training and can be crucial with the rise of employees working from home. Continue Reading
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News
02 Apr 2020
IT service desks rush to support remote work amid pandemic
IT service desks bore the brunt of the sudden transition from centralized business locations to remote work for most white-collar employees, as COVID-19 forced social distancing. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Mar 2020
What to expect as AI for DevOps advances in the enterprise
While still an emerging practice, the use of artificial intelligence in DevOps shops will have major implications on monitoring, cost optimization and more. Continue Reading
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News
25 Mar 2020
HashiCorp Nomad vs. Kubernetes matchup intensifies with 0.11
HashiCorp Nomad may not overtake Kubernetes but could capture broader enterprise attention with container-like orchestration features for legacy apps in VMs. Continue Reading
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News
20 Mar 2020
Las Vegas shores up SecOps with multi-factor authentication
AI-driven SecOps tools spared Las Vegas from a major data breach in January. The city now bets that two-factor authentication can stop future attempts. Continue Reading
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News
18 Mar 2020
IBM officially supports Red Hat Ansible for mainframe DevOps
IBM will support mainframe DevOps through mainstream distributed systems tools such as Red Hat Ansible and Jenkins, even when it has equivalent mainframe-specific products. Continue Reading
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Tip
13 Mar 2020
3 ways IT teams can use PowerShell in AI initiatives
As they embark on AIOps strategies, IT admins -- particularly those in Windows shops -- can lean on a familiar tool for data gathering and issue remediation: PowerShell. Continue Reading
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News
11 Mar 2020
Continuous delivery pipeline transforms hotel chain's IT ops
As Choice Hotels moved away from homegrown scripting tools for continuous delivery, it fundamentally shifted the daily duties of its IT ops teams. Continue Reading
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Video
11 Mar 2020
Follow this Ansible Vault example for encryption best practices
IT admins can choose between two types of encryption methods when they use Ansible Vault: file-level and variable-level. Walk through each model with this brief video. Continue Reading
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News
06 Mar 2020
Istio service mesh revamp may ease use, or sow confusion
Istio 1.5 reworks a microservices-based control plane into a monolith as the service mesh project seeks to simplify management and improve performance. Continue Reading
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Tip
03 Mar 2020
Build a SaaS disaster recovery plan for IT automation tools
While cloud-based IT automation software offers speed and flexibility, it poses the same potential risk of other hosted tools: a loss of availability during an outage. Continue Reading
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Tip
26 Feb 2020
Why to use staging environments for IT infrastructure testing
A well-built and efficient staging environment pays off in a more stable production deployment. For this reason, IT ops teams should perform isolated infrastructure tests in staging. Continue Reading
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News
26 Feb 2020
JFrog touts DevSecOps edge in CI/CD tools
JFrog hops aboard a crowded CI/CD bandwagon, but its expertise in artifact and package management could appeal to security-conscious DevOps shops. Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Feb 2020
Put these Terraform best practices into action
Terraform enables IT teams to complete a range of tasks, from deployment to multi-cloud management. Apply this collection of best practices to get started with, or optimize your use of, the IaC tool. Continue Reading
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Tip
24 Feb 2020
IT tool selection criteria to guide emerging tech navigation
The IT industry is almost always in flux. For organizations to keep up, they must invest in the right tools, which takes asking the right questions. Continue Reading
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News
21 Feb 2020
Massive DoD DevSecOps standards push may aid enterprise IT
The CNCF, defense contractors and IT vendors have joined forces with the Department of Defense to establish NIST security standards and best practices for DevSecOps. Continue Reading
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News
21 Feb 2020
GKE Application Manager does GitOps for Kubernetes config
GKE Application Manager, rolled out in beta this week, bakes in an open source Kubernetes configuration management tool to simplify application deployments to GKE. Continue Reading
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News
14 Feb 2020
Chef IT automation invigorates legacy apps amid cloud surge
Chef Software's Habitat tool carved out a niche as it matured, among enterprise IT pros tasked with modernizing legacy data center apps. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
07 Feb 2020
Visual Studio Code vs. the native console for PowerShell debugging
Unsure whether to debug a PowerShell script in Visual Studio Code or the PowerShell console? Follow this tutorial to make the decision a little easier. Continue Reading
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News
06 Feb 2020
Enterprise service management blurs business, IT operations
IT-style automated workflows are expanding to non-IT departments, even as business initiatives fuse with software projects. IT ops will support both, often with the same toolset. Continue Reading
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Tip
29 Jan 2020
3 ways to react to an IT system failure avalanche
In complex IT infrastructures, a system or resource failure can spur follow-up issues. Compare three approaches to prevent these dreaded domino effects and reach the root of the problem. Continue Reading
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News
21 Jan 2020
PE firm merges XebiaLabs, CollabNet for new DevOps toolchain
XebiaLabs will join with CollabNet VersionOne to form a new DevOps platform vendor that will compete with Atlassian, GitHub, GitLab and CloudBees. Continue Reading
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News
17 Jan 2020
AIOps exec bets on incident response market shakeup
Resolve Systems, under a newly appointed CEO, will soon roll out a new product based on its FixStream acquisition that combines AIOps and IT automation. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
17 Jan 2020
Walk through common use cases for built-in Terraform functions
Follow along with this Terraform tutorial to learn and apply various types of built-in functions -- including Numeric, String, and Date and Time -- within the IaC tool. Continue Reading
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News
16 Jan 2020
SaltStack infrastructure-as-code tools seek cloud-native niche
SaltStack, like other infrastructure-as-code tools, must reinvent itself as cloud-native IT automation approaches such as containers, serverless and Kubernetes Operators grow. Continue Reading
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Tip
16 Jan 2020
PowerShell 7 features set to address some, not all, functionality gaps
While PowerShell 7 is set to unify the cross-platform and traditional Windows versions of the tool, it might not check all the boxes in terms of features IT admins want to see. Continue Reading
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Tip
08 Jan 2020
Evaluate if serverless cost benefits are worth the upfront price
Before an IT shop adopts serverless, it must fully grasp how the technology operates, and prepare for the upfront -- and potentially costly -- app refactoring efforts it requires. Continue Reading
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Tip
07 Jan 2020
How and why to set up an automation CoE for DevOps
As DevOps automation efforts spread across IT and the business, use a center of excellence to establish standards, secure executive sponsorship and organize staff trainings. Continue Reading
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Opinion
02 Jan 2020
AIOps meaning to expand throughout DevOps chain
AIOps means artificial intelligence to aid in IT operations. But it could mean much more than that, bringing in development, business, security and other application stakeholders. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Dec 2019
Enable automated failover with a highly available CMDB
A resilient CMDB helps drive automated failover processes. Explore several approaches to prepare your configuration management database for DR scenarios. Continue Reading
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News
18 Dec 2019
Ex-PayPal pros shun AI with SecOps IT automation firm
Machine learning and AI are all the rage in IT automation tools -- except for the one produced by a new startup founded by two former PayPal cybersecurity engineers. Continue Reading
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Feature
16 Dec 2019
Ramp up carefully during AIOps implementation
Sound IT automation and data management practices -- along with a healthy dose of patience -- are prerequisites for a smooth AIOps implementation. Continue Reading
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Opinion
11 Dec 2019
Emphasize app modernization in 2020 IT budget plans
IT budgeting can be stressful and complicated, but it doesn't have to be. Communicate with business leaders and users to identify -- and capitalize on -- the right opportunities. Continue Reading
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Video
09 Dec 2019
A Jenkins video tutorial to set up a build job
Jenkins can help IT operations admins perform a number of IT automation tasks -- but first, they have to be familiar with the tool. Learn how to create a Jenkins project, or job, with this video. Continue Reading
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News
06 Dec 2019
10 DevOps tools vendors to watch in 2020
A vast market for DevOps tools includes every major IT vendor and many up-and-comers. A panel of industry experts say these 10 are most likely to shift the market in 2020. Continue Reading
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Tip
03 Dec 2019
How a rules engine can drive -- or derail -- an IT automation strategy
To benefit fully from a rules engine -- and minimize the risk of chaos -- IT organizations need to carefully define system metrics and be diligent about documentation. Continue Reading
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News
20 Nov 2019
Kubernetes security opens a new frontier: Multi-tenancy
Enterprises have grown used to managing Kubernetes in production for some of their workloads, but broadening those deployments can bring multi-tenant security challenges. Continue Reading
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Tip
12 Nov 2019
A GitOps workflow won't benefit every IT organization
A move to GitOps is a major transition for an IT team and offers a wealth of perks, but it also carries significant challenges and a steep learning curve. Continue Reading
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Tip
04 Nov 2019
When to use Jenkins vs. Jenkins X for pipeline automation
Three primary factors -- flexibility, Kubernetes adoption and the need for a GUI -- should shape an organization's decision between Jenkins and Jenkins X as a pipeline automation tool. Continue Reading
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Feature
21 Oct 2019
Security automation charges IT ops to build the 'paved road'
As IT ops pros evolve into SREs, they play a key role in security automation and create secure paths to production deployment for application developers. Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Oct 2019
Three keys to successful DevOps automation
An effective CI pipeline starts with build automation. But there are other steps needed to produce results. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
09 Oct 2019
How to create PowerShell modules with a Plaster template
Follow along this tutorial to create templates in Plaster, an open source tool, and accelerate the development of PowerShell modules. Continue Reading
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News
02 Oct 2019
Chef outage fuels technology ethics debate
Software companies have been embroiled in high-profile ethical controversies in the past two years, driving industry debate about just how extensively politics should influence tech. Continue Reading
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Feature
30 Sep 2019
6 tips to drive infrastructure-as-code best practices
Evaluating an infrastructure-as-code setup? Use these six tips to grasp IaC benefits, challenges, tool considerations and more before you make the move. Continue Reading
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Answer
30 Sep 2019
Perform a Windows event log search with PowerShell
Event log monitoring is vital to an IT environment's health and success, but finding a specific event in the flood is challenging. PowerShell enables admins to simplify this task. Continue Reading
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News
26 Sep 2019
Turbonomic adds features to Application Resource Management
The new features include continuous service optimization in Kubernetes and accurate container planning to ensure that applications have sufficient resources to perform. Continue Reading
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News
25 Sep 2019
Ansible Tower revamp adds analytics, security automation
Ansible Tower and Ansible Engine are now one product, Ansible Automation Platform, which also includes automation analytics, security automation integrations and certified content. Continue Reading
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Tip
24 Sep 2019
Apply staging environment best practices to an app lifecycle
From the public cloud to blue/green deployment, there are a myriad of ways that IT teams can make the most of their staging environments -- and use resources they already have. Continue Reading
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Answer
19 Sep 2019
How do I manage ACL folder permissions with a PowerShell script?
PowerShell scripts make short work of repetitive Windows tasks, saving admins time, effort and frustration. One simple area admins can manage with scripts is the access control list. Continue Reading
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Answer
19 Sep 2019
What are the main features of Ansible vs. Ansible Tower?
Both Ansible and Ansible Tower offer enterprises a wealth of resources for config management, but they aren't equals. Assess their differences in crucial aspects such as security. Continue Reading
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News
18 Sep 2019
DevSecOps veterans share security strategy, lessons learned
DevSecOps practitioners imparted dos and don'ts for newbies and urged them to think strategically as well as tactically about improving IT security. Continue Reading
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News
17 Sep 2019
New application security risks lead IT teams to DevSecOps
Once a bleeding-edge concept, DevSecOps has gone mainstream following high-profile security breaches that proved simply installing automated security tools doesn't go far enough. Continue Reading
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Tip
13 Sep 2019
Tips and tools to achieve a serverless DevOps workflow
Serverless functions bring the benefits of event-driven computing to a CI/CD pipeline -- but to get there, DevOps teams might need to lean heavily on services and tools from the major cloud computing providers. Continue Reading
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News
11 Sep 2019
New HashiCorp Terraform pricing aims for midsize firms, teams
HashiCorp Terraform Cloud's new pricing tier reflects a shift in how software vendors market to large enterprises. Continue Reading
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Tip
10 Sep 2019
Secure configuration management tasks with a certificate authority
A CA server is a limited shield for the data that configuration management tools collect, but IT admins can use one for many tasks -- like to create custom certificates -- and boost security. Continue Reading
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News
09 Sep 2019
ServiceNow adds mobile app to 'New York' Now Platform
ServiceNow released the latest version of its Now Platform that features a mobile application giving remote users access to the core capabilities of the platform. Continue Reading
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News
06 Sep 2019
Feature flags emerge as enterprise DevOps must-have
CloudBees and Atlassian have feature flags on their near-term product roadmaps, as enterprise DevOps shops seek to lower the risk of continuous code deployment to production. Continue Reading
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News
05 Sep 2019
Atlassian cloud woos enterprises with SLA, security boost
Large enterprise users of Atlassian's on-premises software say the vendor's cloud tools have piqued their interest with updates to security and support. Continue Reading
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Tip
30 Aug 2019
Maintain CMDB data integrity for automated disaster recovery
For successful disaster recovery, IT admins must keep CMDB data precise. Learn best practices to promote data accuracy for an automated failover and DR plan. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
22 Aug 2019
Follow this Terraform and AWS tutorial to create a VPC
As an infrastructure-as-code tool, Terraform simplifies and streamlines resource deployments. Follow along with this example, which features Amazon VPCs, to get started. Continue Reading
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News
15 Aug 2019
Jenkins X gears up for SaaS version, GitOps standards
With key maturity milestones behind them, the maintainers of Jenkins X prepare a SaaS version, and plan to collaborate with Google's Tekton and Netflix's Spinnaker. Continue Reading
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News
14 Aug 2019
CloudBees CEO reveals plans for CI/CD tools, Google project
CloudBees CEO Sacha Labourey puts his roadmap cards on the table for the next generation of the company's CI/CD tools and an upcoming project to co-develop CI/CD for Anthos with Google. Continue Reading
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Answer
02 Aug 2019
Can I install Ansible for Windows system management?
Even though Ansible has its roots in open source software and Linux, is it possible to use the configuration management tool for Windows environments? Continue Reading
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News
31 Jul 2019
SaaS management tool eases merger transition for IT
When European car-sharing startup Drivy becomes Getaround this fall, a SaaS management tool will integrate the two companies' IT systems, an increasingly common need for businesses. Continue Reading
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Tip
31 Jul 2019
Weigh infrastructure as code risks against the benefits
Infrastructure as code can transform the modern data center, but maintain a healthy dose of caution -- and thorough documentation and testing environments -- to prevent chaos. Continue Reading
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News
30 Jul 2019
GitOps path puts CI/CD ahead of infrastructure automation
Which comes first -- automated app deployment pipelines, or automated infrastructures on which to deploy? At GitOps shop Procore, the answer is emphatically the former. Continue Reading
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Tip
25 Jul 2019
Apply automation for streamlined IT asset management
Without accurate data, IT asset management processes fail. But, with automation and self-service capabilities, admins can efficiently track assets -- from onboarding to end of life. Continue Reading
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News
24 Jul 2019
Compliance-as-code tool hits DevSecOps sweet spot for MSP
There are almost as many tools to assist with DevSecOps as there are definitions for the term – how one managed service provider that serves federal agencies chose a compliance-as-code vendor. Continue Reading
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News
19 Jul 2019
Kubernetes policy project takes enterprise IT by storm
A Kubernetes-friendly compliance as code project hosted by the CNCF has caught on among large enterprises in the first half of 2019, largely through word of mouth. Continue Reading
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Tip
19 Jul 2019
Combine Puppet and Chocolatey to drive Windows DevOps
Through the use of Puppet and Chocolatey side by side, Windows IT professionals can use Linux-like DevOps tools to automate the deployment and configuration of their systems. Continue Reading
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Tip
18 Jul 2019
PKI authentication explained: The basics for IT administrators
Public key infrastructure is part and parcel of modern digital business, from secure communications to data transmission and beyond. Admins must understand PKI to optimize its benefits. Continue Reading
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Feature
18 Jul 2019
Get creative with feature flags in IT operations
Feature flags give IT operations a range of possibility as broad as the imagination -- once you learn this dev-centric technique. Continue Reading
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Answer
17 Jul 2019
What are Ansible roles and when and how should I use them?
Roles are one of several functions in Ansible that simplify and streamline IT automation processes. Dig into this quick overview to learn the basics of roles and potential use cases. Continue Reading
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Tip
03 Jul 2019
Use Puppet Bolt to simplify configuration management
Bolt, Puppet's cross-platform automation tool, is designed to minimize the learning curve for ops teams, but users still need to grasp its primary commands and elements. Continue Reading
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Answer
28 Jun 2019
How do I get started with an Ansible playbook?
An Ansible playbook boosts admin productivity when they manage configurations across machines. Learn how playbooks work and how to avoid live errors. Continue Reading
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Tutorial
27 Jun 2019
Perform this infrastructure as code tutorial with Pulumi and AWS
Learn the basics of an infrastructure as code deployment with this tutorial, which features the open source tool Pulumi, along with Python and AWS. Continue Reading
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News
26 Jun 2019
LogicMonitor wades into AIOps with anomaly detection
Another country heard from in AIOps: LogicMonitor rolls out anomaly detection and alert dependency correlation, but can it rise above the noise? Continue Reading
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News
26 Jun 2019
SysAid launches Automate Joe for ITSM platform automation
Integrating Automate Joe with the SysAid ITSM platform will boost automation, minimize repetitive tasks for service agents and improve productivity, according to the vendor. Continue Reading
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Opinion
20 Jun 2019
Future of PowerShell lies in DevOps, cloud resource management
While PowerShell isn't the only automation and scripting tool that fits in IT pros' cloud and CI/CD toolboxes, it won't fall out of favor any time soon. Continue Reading
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Tip
14 Jun 2019
How to cautiously reap the benefits of DevOps as a service
Outsourcing the operation of DevOps tools has its perks, but be sure to carefully position that move to in-house development and ops teams first. Continue Reading