Red Hat on Tuesday unveiled an integration of Ansible and OpenShift that aims to enable automated deployment of multi-cluster Kubernetes environments side-by-side with traditional IT infrastructure.
The integrated Ansible Automation Platform, introduced in technical preview at AnsibleFest Virtual 2020, will make it easier for partners to deliver complex, highly scalable hybrid cloud environments to their enterprise customers, Red Hat CEO Paul Cormier told CRN.
“We can now automate the deployment of OpenShift clusters, applications, control policies,” Cormier said. “It’s really important as we scale out in this hybrid world.”
[Related: Paul Cormier: Why Red Hat, IBM Have ‘Different Programs, Channels And Partners’]
Ansible is a leading DevOps solution for provisioning and configuring infrastructure and deploying applications through repeatable code contained in Ansible Playbooks.
By integrating that platform with OpenShift’s new Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes feature, which went GA in August in OpenShift 4.5, Ansible Playbooks can describe cloud-native infrastructure that spans multiple Kubernetes clusters.
Also introduced at AnsibleFest was an extension of Red Hat Certified Ansible Content Collections to containerized infrastructure.
Through that cloud-based catalog, delivered in Ansible Automation Hub, Red Hat curates and certifies playbooks based on automation domains and platforms.
Content Collections were released last year, but now include certified content to ensure the best possible deployments of OpenShift, as well as core Kubernetes and VMware vSphere REST APIs.
“Customers really wanted that because they’re really now running their enterprises on these products,” Cormier said. “They’re betting their businesses on these things.”
Enterprises know they get proven infrastructure configurations, with Red Hat standing behind them. That’s what’s required for truly enterprise-grade technology, Cormier said.
And partners are also getting their playbooks certified, he added.
The Ansible upgrades deliver greater automation across a hybrid cloud landscape that’s increasingly complex, both in spanning on-premises and multi-cloud infrastructure and deploying containerized architectures orchestrated by Kubernetes with traditional ones running on virtual machines.
“Those are the tools systems integrators need to bring hybrid deployments deeper into the enterprise,” Cormier said, allowing them to provide a much higher level of service.
“Now they can really go in to setup really complex multi-cluster container environments across various footprints in the hybrid world,” he told CRN.