Today, automation of IT operations and cloud infrastructure is not just an option anymore but a necessity. You can automate dozens of tasks such as monitoring, deployment, orchestration, and security.
And the acceleration of automation is led by the flow of powerful IT cloud automation tools present in the market. But the challenge is to select the right tools for your infrastructure depending upon the needs and requirements.
Ansible is one such automation solution for your IT infrastructure. So, let’s explore Ansible and its features & benefits along with its alternatives present in the market.
What is Ansible? How does it work?
To put it simply, Ansible automates a wide range of IT aspects that includes configuration management, application deployment, cloud provisioning, etc. Plus, while using Ansible, you can patch your application, automate deployments, and run compliances and governance on your application. You can easily manage it by using a web interface known as Ansible Tower. Furthermore, Ansible is all about automation. Hence, it needs instructions to complete each task. Ansible handles most of the complexity, not the user.
This automation tool models the IT infrastructure by picturing how your systems are interrelated instead of managing one system at a time. Also, Ansible uses a simple language known as YAML. It allows you to describe your automation job in a way that approaches simple English.
Features & Benefits
- Ansible has an efficient architecture, and it works by connecting to your nodes and pushing out small programs.
- You can use options like Kerberos or Identity Management systems.
- Manage your inventory in simple text files with Ansible.
- Ansible’s Playbook can subtly orchestrate multiple slices of your infrastructure topology.
- The language in Ansible remains readable and transparent. So now you never have to declare explicit ordering relationships.
Moving forward, assuming that you have already used Ansible and are very well familiar with the above features, however, want to replace it with other automation tools. Now is the time for you to do so.
Below is an overview of the best alternatives to Ansible you might like to consider to automate your server with all the latest features.
Attune
Attune is the best alternative to Ansible you’ll find in the market today. It is identical to Ansible, which offers an agentless solution that works across operating systems with WinRM and SSH protocols. The steps in Attune are written in the popular shell scripting languages. Attune has an easy-to-use interface that allows you to manage all your servers.
Check out the features of Attune below.
Features of Attune
- Attune is built with users’ favorite scripting languages and runs a Window batch file and PowerShell for a specified interpreter on a windows server.
- Attune executes SQL or PL/SQL scripts.
- It has a simplified task scheduling process.
Jenkins
Jenkin is a popular tool for performing continuous integration of software projects in the market. Plus, it continues the delivery of projects regardless of the platform you’re working on. And it is also responsible for handling any build or continuous integration with various testing and development technologies. As a product, Jenkins is more developer-centric and feature-driven
Features of Jenkins
- It is open-source and free to use, which is preferred by early-stage startups and large corporations.
- You can integrate Jenkins with cloud platforms such as Google Cloud, VMWare, vSphere, and Digital Ocean.
- Jenkins pipelines are highly useful for realizing CD requirements for large-scale projects.
Puppet
Puppet is a DevOps configuration management tool that is available for both open-source and enterprise versions. Puppet is an application developed by Puppet Labs and used to centralize and automate the procedure of configuration management.
Puppet is developed using Ruby DSL language. Thus, it allows users to change overall infrastructure in code format.
Features of Puppet
- Puppet is compatible with every platform that supports Ruby.
- It provides a large number of well-developed wiki pages.
- On the contrary to other configuration management tools, Puppet safely runs the same set of configurations multiple times.
Conclusion
Without a doubt, Ansible is one of the most popular automation servers in the market. However, it is high time you explore some other options to get the latest features. Briefly explained above are the top alternatives that you might like to consider depending upon the necessities of your infrastructure.
