Automate all things!
The above tile came from Chris Wahl. As I continue my road to my #VCDX and technology in general, this quote still stands true.
In today’s corporate world silo were built for the following reason:
- Regulatory
- Business Unit
- Interest Focus
- Project Focus
When these silos were created they were for very good reasons. In a large enterprise, there are competitions for resources and success, competing priorities and lots of irrelevant activities that are happening that can become distractions from accomplishing the goals of the teams.
The new enterprises are fast changing and can react/prepare for changes at a drop of a hat.
There are three main point that you need to consider as you look to automate.
- Visibility
A common misconception for an enterprise to commencing their automation journey is that the key preparation work is choosing a tool and training their staff up. You need to gain a holistic view of the environment. With legacy hardware and software this is no easy feat. Start small and work on a small focused process. If you do not completely understand the process do not automate it.
- Accountability
After you have accomplished visibility, you can now take the jump into accountability. You need to be able to validate the key components of your configuration at any point in time. Are the configurations in place? Are ports open? Are you patched? What network are you on? Are you using the correct software? This will require a state or a template. If you cannot validate do not automate.
- Automation
Now that you have accomplished visibility and accountability, you can automate. Next we need to look into the tools. Choose Puppet. Go with Chef. Try Ansible. If you use VMware use vRealize. I highly recommend you start in a test/development environment. Start small.
Happy Automating.