Item: Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using it for deploying virtual machines, deploy software on top, and configure software through APIs. Other we use it with monitoring integration for event driven reconfigurations. AAP is used for helpdesk running provisioning tasks, configuration of servers at client premisses, configuration of network equipment... Also for deploying servers in lab for testing changes.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Provisioning of servers on hypervisiors
Configuration of software through API
Event driven remediation

Cons

Automation hub stuck when pulling images
Documentation on deploying isolated nodes

Most Important Features

Isolated nodes
API

Return on Investment

Automated deployment of infrastructure

Alternatives Considered

Rundeck and Podman.io

We needed highly secure environment and the need of support was one of the top priorities. The API was needed to manualy run configured playbooks and feed them with variables. Virtual environments were not scalling well when there were additional nodes needed, like isolated nodes. Pacing them in Podman containers is great benefit.

Key Insights

Do you think Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform's feature set?

Yes

Did Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Red Hat Satellite, VMware Carbon Black EDR, IBM Security QRadar EDR, Nessus

Likelihood to Recommend

It is well suited in enviroments where there is a lot interaction with API. Its not well suited for working with multiple users or playbooks where there are lot of variables included. It can see the benefits where there are dislocated environments with low bandwidth. Use of hop nodes are really beneficial in combination of isolated nodes.

Using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform

Users and Roles

3 - It Infrastructure

Support Headcount Required

3 - Infrastructure skills of various products

Business Processes Supported

Configuration of security products
Configuration of INfrastructure
Configuration of Network devices

Innovative Uses

Deploy whole product lifecycle
Archive desired state of configuration
Automatize air-gapped environment

Future Planned Uses

Integrate the product with ticketing system
Integration with secrets server
Establish event driven use cases

Likelihood to Renew

Evaluating Ansible and Competitors

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Scalability
Integration with Other Systems
Ease of Use

Evaluation Lessons Learned

No. AAP gives us all use cases that we need. The only lacking resource now is the knowledge of the rest of the team. The Cisco guys have to learn ansible to cover their use cases. The security team for configuration or response on event driven etc.

Ansible Implementation

Implementation Rating

No actually. We implemented the 2.3.

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Third-party professional services

Saudi information technology company (SITE)

The security limitations and integration with cloud

Ansible Support

Support Rating

For now we didn't need one

Ansible Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None