Your One-stop Shop for Certified Ansible Content: Red Hat Ansible Automation Hub

Ansible is one of the largest open-source automation communities in the world. It is a tool used for provisioning, configuring and deploying IT tasks and is comprised of content that is created and updated by independent contributors, partners and Red Hat. Initially, Ansible gained popularity through Ansible Galaxy, which enabled Ansible users to share content they created with one another and helped users jump-start their automation projects by leveraging what others in the community shared.Though Ansible Galaxy provides beneficial content to quickly launch automation initiatives, it possesses a serious security risk to organizations because it is largely unregulated and unvetted which can lead to security issues. Organizations wanted an alternative solution that would provide similar content but from a trusted source. Enter Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. Launched in September 2019, the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform facilitates cross-team collaboration, governance and analytics and makes it easier to create, share and manage automation across enterprise. It also provides a secure way of accessing certified Ansible content via the Red Hat Ansible Automation Hub. RedHat Ansible Automation Hub is a repository for organizations to discover certified, supported Content Collections. All content available on Red Hat Ansible Automation Hub is backed by support from Red Hat, and its partners, and provides reassurance that the content is well tested and free of security risks. With certified content available from Red Hat and its partners any organization can jump-start their automation project with confidence.Red Hat Ansible Automation Hub has over 1200 certified modules in its repository and over 30 certified partners including MOBIA partners like Microsoft, Netapp, Aruba, Splunk, Fortinet and Google Cloud.Another key benefit of the Red Hat Ansible Automation Hub is that the vendors can develop content independent of the Ansible release cycle. They can upload the new module on Red Hat Ansible Automation Hub and it will immediately become available for an organization to gain access to. For example, if F5 introduces a new load balancer, they can upload the collection (modules, plugins, roles, documentation and playbooks) on Red Hat Ansible Automation Hub for organizations to consume. Previously, companies would have had to wait for a new release of Ansible to be able to access the new F5 load balancer module. This independence from the release cycle allows for faster adoption of Ansible. Previously, organizations were pulling content, which may not have complied with their internal standards, from Ansible Galaxy. While using this unsupported content could initially speed up a project, it was accompanied by massive potential security risk. Red Hat Ansible Automation Hub provides a one-stop shop for Ansible content that is supported and tested by Red Hat and its partner, thus allowing companies to consume Ansible content with confidence and assurance that it is well tested and meets their standards.About the Author: Ashish Aggarwal, Solutions Architect, MOBIAAshish Aggarwal is a Solutions Architect with nearly 20 years experience in the IT industry. He has extensive experience partnering with customers on technology adoption, solutions architecture and open source technology platforms. Ashish is a licensed K8S administrator. In his spare time, you’ll find Ashish gardening and going on long drives in the country side in his Jeep.