We primarily use it for network automation and security or CVE resolution.

We save thousands of hours a year doing security updates and configuration updates. We save our administrator's time by pushing updates. It is a one-click solution, and all they have to do now is pull down whatever they need for their configs. It saves about 4,000 man hours a year.

If you imagine Tier 1, 2, and 3 administrators, I am sitting more at the Tier 3 level. We are able to push out more complicated configurations. We can do just an SSH push to thousands of devices. It saves the time of our administrators from having to go into the console of every device. They do not have to SSH into every device and manually type in those configs. We can resolve security issues within a matter of minutes rather than days.

You have the initial big push to get Ansible set up and running in the environment, but once it is there, any tweaks or changes involve just edits to the code base, and you are good to go. It is not at all intensive.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has not reduced the training required to learn how to automate things. We are starting from scratch, so there is always going to be a learning curve associated with it. The more you peel that onion, the more involved it gets, and the more you have to learn about it.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform helps connect teams, such as developers, operations, or security so that they can automate together. It is hard to get anything done if all of those players are not talking. Knowledge bases are not siloed anymore. Previously, we did not have a cross-talk or sharing of information. Now that we have the platform, we have to share knowledge back and forth where we are pushing an update and they are telling us what is broken. There is constant feedback. There is a good feedback loop.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has helped to reduce the time we spend on low-value or repetitive tasks. It is hard to quantify the time savings because of the mass scale at which we use it, but it would be within thousands of man hours a year.

My guess is that Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has saved us costs, but I am not in a position to see those numbers.

When you have an enterprise-level number of network devices, the ability to quickly push out security updates to thousands of devices is the biggest thing.

At this time, I do not have anything to improve. What we struggle with is the knowledge base, but that is more about us having to go and find it and learn the platform on our own rather than an actual Ansible issue.

I have been using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform for the last eight months. 

It is pretty good. Usually, if we have any issues, they are user-induced. When Ansible goes down or there is an issue like that, it is usually something we have done at the backend rather than Ansible itself.

It is very scalable. The way we use it is that we tie it in with another app to touch all of our devices and to deploy any configurations or whatever we need to push. Our code base sits on Git, and then we use another company for monitoring our devices. With one tower, or two for redundancy, we are able to push to more than 5,000 devices.

It has been good so far. There have been a few cases for which we reached out to them to get some help. I have not interacted with them personally, but I have heard good things. I would rate their support an eight out of ten.

Positive

I have not used any similar solution.

I was not there when we set it up. In terms of the deployment model, we still have one that is in the VM, and we are also using the containerized version. It is still Ansible Tower.

It has saved us thousands of man hours.

I was not there when we set it up. We have been using it for about four years. I am not sure about what happened before then.

I would rate Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform a nine out of ten.

I am the section manager for the open system section in a county. We provide support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the IBM AIX platform, and, of course, Ansible Tower.

Ansible Tower was brought in to automate a lot of endpoint security software. We have an entire process where we bring up virtual machines on the x86 environment. Every time we brought up a Linux or Windows virtual machine, all the endpoint software needed to be installed after the fact by the necessary groups. That was taking a long time. If we have ten machines pop up today, going to all ten machines and installing five different endpoint security tools takes a while. Ansible helped in adding Ansible playbooks into the workflow. Now, when someone clicks and says that I want a Linux machine and provides all the information, then in the end, it spins up the machine automatically and uses Ansible Playbooks to install all the necessary pieces of software. It then gives a login and the necessary passwords for the customer to log in and start working. We now know that every time we deploy, all our endpoint security products are installed and ready to go.

The benefit is in terms of time-saving. There is more time for our team to worry about and take care of other engineering work than worrying about installing endpoints. Also, our Oracle database team is working on Ansible Playbooks to automate patching, which takes a long time to plan and do, especially in the production workloads. We are working very closely with that group.

We also work with the backup group to see how we can automate the day-to-day mundane processes. All these aspects bring us a lot of value. We are saving time, and we can also restructure and understand our necessity to have extra people on the team. We can cut down costs on that. We can reorganize ourselves to focus on much better technology, such as AI and things like that, instead of wasting time doing manual processes.

It has helped us achieve our mission. It helps to reduce the workforce and manage the time of our existing workforce. They can be more involved in new technologies such as AI. Understanding them takes time. They save a lot of time with automation.

We use other Red Hat products. We use OpenShift. When containers started taking off, which was about six to seven years ago, the government sector did not want to go into the cloud and use AWS containers. However, in our county, the customers were demanding that. They were saying that their applications are modernizing and we need to provide them with a container environment. That is when we decided to go for it. Because we were already Red Hat customers and we have been running Red Hat Enterprise Linux since 4.x, we decided to go for OpenShift. It was the same platform, and they were offering manageable containers. That is how we brought in the container platform. It is rock-solid. We had it on-prem. We have moved it to AWS, and it is great. The new thing is OpenShift Container Platform Plus which comes with a slew of additional tools. These tools help us provide the necessary application infrastructure for containers for customers.

We have Red Hat Enterprise Linux and OCP running in AWS.

It takes away a lot of work. For example, if you have five security products to install, you install the first one, test it, and make sure it works. You then install the second one, the third one, and the fourth one, and then something happens. Something breaks. All that is taken away because we have foolproof systems built into our playbooks. There is also a continuous workflow from the start until the end.

With Ansible Tower, the automation methodology is simple. There is ease of learning. It definitely reduces the training required to learn how to automate things for technical folks. It is much easier than writing bash scripts. This reduced training affects our operations or business. For example, if security folks come and say that they need to write a bash script that will go into their workflow to install, uninstall, and upgrade agents, that is a lot easier to do with Ansible Playbooks.

It helps to bring teams together. Black lines between the operations, security, and other teams are going away. Those lines are becoming more gray and light gray. There are DevOps and SecOps, and even finance is becoming FinOps. It definitely helps teams come together, and then we try our best to guide the teams, whether it is the Oracle team or security team, so that eventually they will learn to do their own playbooks. We can always be the guardrails.

It increases productivity, saves time, and even saves the cost of people working after hours trying to get these things going. It is all in the workflow.

It has definitely helped to reduce the time we spend on low-value or repetitive tasks. There is a huge difference. About 20% of my staff's time is saved. They do not have to worry about things. Once you set it, you can forget it unless there is a change or there is something different. For example, the security group comes and says that they have stopped using the Cisco product. They are using some other vendor's endpoint security. In such a case, all we have to do is change those variables, and we are done. Previously, we had to go back, use the Windows uninstall program and reinstall. This is much easier.

The most valuable feature is that it is easy to build playbooks. The learning curve is not that steep. That is one thing. The other valuable feature is all the pieces of logs and things like that where you can go and find out if something went wrong. Those are the key features.

Also, we use the OpenShift Container Platform, so it blends in very well if you want to deploy containers or namespaces. Automatic DNS, creation of DNS, collation of namespaces, and other similar things can be automated with Ansible.

We are very satisfied with what we have. From a management point of view, whatever makes it easier for my team to help customers write their own playbooks would be something very beneficial. Everything is going as a service. Creating playbooks can become much more consumer-oriented so that customers do not need to contact us to write their own playbooks. It would be great to have something that can help us do that with a few clicks like all these new languages that are there today. We used to use a lot of bash scripts to do automation, but you need to be a Unix administrator for years to even figure that out. What Ansible is providing is somewhat user-friendly, but I would extend that to be even more user-friendly for customers so that they do not have to contact a technical team to write their playbooks.

We started using it about two years ago.

It is very stable. I have not had any issues since we brought it up. I have a non-production environment and a production environment. Non-production is just for our guys to play around with. It is not as big as the production environment.

Adding resources and satisfying customer demands is easy. We have no problems with scaling out.

Their support is fantastic. I would rate them a nine out of ten because the whole team was changed after IBM bought them. The new guys are getting used to it. Whenever I call them, they are very responsive. It was sad to see the team that we were used to for six or seven years being let go. I do not know why.

Positive

We did not use a similar solution previously. We used bash scripts.

The entire Ansible solution is on-prem. The team did not have any challenges deploying it. My team has been dabbling with Red Hat since Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.x. It was just another Red Hat box for them. It was not a major issue for them to bring up the necessary infrastructure.

It was all done in-house.

In terms of the reduction in costs, we started using it only two years ago. I have to recoup my infrastructure cost for setting up Ansible Tower. We are charging our customers. Previously, we had bash scripts. There was not a cost, but now, I have to recoup the cost of Ansible Tower licensing. Its licensing is expensive. Currently, when it comes to a customer using Ansible Tower, there is a slight additional cost, but as more customers come to use my infrastructure for Ansible Tower for automation, it will become cheaper and cheaper.

Ansible Tower is pretty expensive.

We did not evaluate other products. This was the go-to product because we were already a Red Hat shop.

Overall, I would rate it a ten out of ten. There probably is not any other easier solution to automation right now, at least for my environment because we are a Red Hat shop.

We use it for the bot. It helps to keep tracking all the automation processes that are ongoing in your ecosystem

It helps with patching and keeping everything compliant.

Automation tracking is the most valuable feature. 

The SSM connection access needs improvement because right now, they do everything through SSH.

I have been Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform for a few years. 

The solution is very stable. 

If there's some cloud add ons, we would increase the usage. Only admins use the solution. 

We just create a server, and then we use that server to on-premesis.

Ansible has good performance. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

We use the solution for Linux patching automation. Currently, we are using the solution for patching normal configuration-related work. However, we also plan to use it for the provisioning of the servers.

The most valuable features of the solution are automation and patching.

The solution is slightly expensive, and its pricing could be improved.

I rate the solution ten out of ten for stability.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a scalable solution. Around 300 to 400 users are using the solution in our organization.

The solution’s technical support is very good.

The solution’s initial setup is very easy.

The solution can be deployed within a day if you have all the resources. To deploy the solution, you need to check if you have a proper infrastructure and everything in place.

Users with the right environment, like Linux, should go for Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. With the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, we don't have to do manual things, increasing our efficiency. The solution helps us complete our complex work very easily, increasing efficiency.

Overall, I rate Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform ten out of ten.

We can use the solution for a group deployment if we have an infrastructure where we need to deploy software onto multiple machines at the same time. The tool should be on an Ansible server, and the server should be able to do SSH to the multiple hosts on which it wants to act.

We can automate a few host configurations using the product.

The solution must be made easier to configure.

I have been using the solution for almost five months. I am using the latest version of the solution.

The product is very stable.

The product is scalable. We can use it on multiple cluster levels.

The documentation is quite good. We don’t need to call anyone.

The initial setup is quite easy. The deployment took 15 to 30 minutes. The tool was deployed on a Linux machine. People deploying the solution must have some hands-on experience in Linux.

It’s an open-source tool.

I recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

The primary use case is mostly automation. In technical terms, the solution uses a playbook. The playbooks contain code. If you have written all the code in the playbook, you just execute that code. You can automate depending on the environment.

The playbooks and the code the solution uses are quite useful.

It would be good to make the solution more user-friendly for customers who aren't skilled in coding and don't know how to use the playbook's code. If we have many customers and the modules already exist, the user can just plug and play.

I have been using the solution for one year.

We don't have many issues with stability, so I rate the solution's stability a nine out of ten.

I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten. We have two customers using the solution.

The technical support is good.

The initial setup is complex, and OpenShift would be much easier. It took a week to deploy the solution. When deploying the solution, you must download the installer and install the solution on the server.

It requires two engineers for maintenance and deployment.

Customers need to pay yearly for the license. The pricing is acceptable. It is not expensive.

If you know the basics of coding for you to write the playbook's code, and if you have a midrange environment with up to 1,000 servers, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a good option to automate daily tasks.

I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

We use the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to configure our infrastructure. It is mainly used to configure the whole activity.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a good choice when you have different distribution platforms. If you have an infrastructure with Ubuntu, VPN, and Red Hat distributions, Ansible can integrate these platforms through a small inventory file, such as a custom image or file.

The role-based access control (RBAC) feature is the most valuable, especially when used with Azure Galaxy Infinity.

Ansible is good at managing applications or devices on the existing infrastructure but cannot provision those devices.

The tool should allow us to create infrastructure. It has everything when it comes to management, but it lacks the provisioning aspect.

I have been using the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform for three years. We're using the latest version of the solution

The solution’s stability is good. I rate it a ten out of ten.

I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten.

The customer service and support are good. It is good if you know how to create and operate it, but it can be difficult for someone who does not have the knowledge of how to configure the YAML file. There is some technical difficulty here. 

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward.

We have seen an ROI as we are still using the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

The pricing is okay.  

I would definitely recommend using the solution. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

I use the solution for all kinds of automation, network automation, compliance security, software installation, and software configuration. I started using the solution as a configuration management tool, and now I also use it for automation. I also use Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform within the CMP platform Morpheus.

The most valuable features of the solution are its configuration management, drift management, workflow templates with the visual UI, and graphical workflow representation.

The solution should add a nice self-service portal.

The standard single-node installation is easy. When you have a protection grade installed, and the customer wants DR, it creates a problem. For example, if you have the database built in, but the customer wants to use RDS, you have to tweak it. Then, you have to use the governance policies and everything accompanying them. Some customization takes place, but overall, it's easy if vendors use a straightforward method.

I have been using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform for many years.

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is a very stable solution. I rate Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform an eight out of ten for stability.

Around 10 users use the solution in our organization, a presales and sales company. Around 1,000 users used the solution in my previous organization.

I rate Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform a nine out of ten for scalability.

The solution's initial setup is not it's not hard. The steps to install the solution seem to be easy.

Users have to pay a per-node cost of around $ 100 per node. The solution's pricing depends upon the volume.

Users have to lay out how they want to build the solution. They should first build smaller job templates and then add them together to build workflow job templates.

Overall, I rate Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform a nine out of ten.

I am using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform as a part of the scale-up of the nodes in OpenShift.

Mostly, we use the solution for upgrading-related stuff.

The most valuable feature is that Ansible is agentless.

For my day-to-day operations, the one module that I am using is very good, and it is giving the intended results. Ansible has a lot of modules to perform your day-to-day activities. I don't think there will be room for improvement based on the current instances or use cases.

The scalability of the solution has some shortcomings. Thus, the solution's scalability has some room for improvement.

Though not much, I have experience with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform for two years. I am a customer of the solution.

Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

The initial setup for Ansible is very easy.

I'm not using the solution in this containerization. In the present environment, we are not using something like Red Hat Ansible Tower. We are using just an Ansible node which is something we use as a server for accessing all of our nodes and managing all of the nodes. Also, building an Ansible node as a bastion or jump host is a pretty easy task.

Actually, when you are building Ansible Tower, I think you need to go for the pricing. For other things, you don't need to do that, I guess. So it's a pretty good tool to automate your day-to-day or daily tasks or activities that can be done with Ansible. It has a lot of features, helping materials, and modules, which will be helpful in automating one's day-to-day jobs. It's pretty easy for us to upgrade and work with the nodes on Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

If you go with any other tools, like Chef or Puppet, they are very hard to configure. Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform is agentless and pretty straightforward. It will reduce a lot of our headaches in general.

I rate the overall solution a ten out of ten.

I use the product mostly to configure virtual machines.

The solution helps us to have a standard configuration for all the virtual machines. It helps our virtual machines have the same configuration every time they restart. It also helps with automation.

The most valuable feature of the solution is that we don’t need an agent for it to work.

The product could do a better job at building infrastructure. 

The product should add a feature that alerts us if someone changes the configuration.

I have been using the solution for two years.

The product has high stability.

The solution has high scalability. It can be deployed on thousands of machines. Seven people in our organization use the solution.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We use the open-source version of the solution. The product can be used for free.

The tool should be used for server configuration but not for creating resources on the cloud. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.