Edge Automation: A Paradigm Shift

Introduction

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has seen wide-scale adoption in a variety of automation domains, however with edge use cases becoming more mainstream, the thought process around automation must shift from “complete a task immediately” to being able to run automation now and later, and respond to incoming automation requests from devices that are yet unmanaged.

Automation in a hybrid cloud environment

In today’s hybrid cloud environment, automation exists in a tightly controlled and predictable space, meaning it’s easy to determine what endpoints are reachable and available for connection. In practice, this manifests as inventory syncs from our various management planes (think AWS/Azure/GCP/VMware) and then targeting the devices brought into Controller via those inventory syncs with automation. Cross connectivity shouldn’t be an issue: If we can see the device in a management plant, we can contact and automate against it. In addition, if there are exceptions to the “connectivity everywhere” model, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform has features and functionality to help address more complex connectivity circumstances.

We can even take this automation approach one step further by pulling those management planes under the management of our automation, giving us the ability to really automate end-to-end. For example, Continue reading

Let’s Level Set at the Edge

Introduction

Typically when people hear the word edge, everyone gets a little apprehensive of what that means. So Josh, Andy, Martin and Chad got together to collaborate on what that means from their collective experiences across multiple industries. In this blog we will cover what the difference is between the near edge and far edge, as well as give some examples of what we have seen in these environments across multiple industries.

Near Edge

Near edge typically refers to distributed deployments of “scaled-down” IT-like services to support business operations outside the core data centers and public cloud providers. This includes anything from retail stores, branch field offices, manufacturing facilities, warehouses and distribution centers that generally have stable connectivity. 

Traditionally, these have been referred to as remote offices or branch offices, with the common acronym ROBO, but there are far more examples of this deployment pattern. Consider the following:

• A point of sale system or back office processing at a retail location.
• A localized authentication/authorization source for badge access to a manufacturing plant.
• A file share located locally to a University’s extension office that’s replicated over an unreliable connection.

These are all examples that fit under our definition of Continue reading