Ansible Community – 2016 Year in Review


It's time again for the annual Ansible community review. Time flies. Our upward trajectory generally continued from 2014 and 2015 through 2016, and our growth continued to bring new challenges and new opportunities.

Let's start again, as we do every year, with a look at the numbers.

Debian Popcon

Debian’s Popularity Contest is an opt-in way for Debian users to share information about the software they’re running on their systems.

Debian Popcorn graph

Caveats abound with this graph -- but even though it represents only a small sample of the Linux distro world, it’s useful because it’s one of the few places where we can really see an apples-to-apples comparison of install bases of the various tools. Because Ansible is agentless, we compare the Ansible package to the server packages of other configuration management tools. (Chef does not make a Debian package available for Chef server.)

We see that Ansible has continued its steady growth through the end of 2016, nearly doubling its Popcon install base again in 2016.

Github Stars

Ansible continued in 2016 to extend its already significant lead in GitHub Stars over other tools in the configuration management space, passing the 20k mark in December 2016.

Github Stars


Github Contributors

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IDG Contributor Network: IoT in crime prevention: Balancing justice with privacy

A homeowner reports a robbery. His IoT-enabled pacemaker doesn’t indicate any change in heart rate during the robbery? Can investigators obtain that information from the service provider? Should they?+ Also on Network World: Cops use pacemaker data to charge homeowner with arson, insurance fraud + Issues of privacy increase as IoT sensors collect more information about us. What rights do individuals have over the information collected about them? Can the accuracy of sensor data be trusted?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: IoT in crime prevention: Balancing justice with privacy

A homeowner reports a robbery. His IoT-enabled pacemaker doesn’t indicate any change in heart rate during the robbery? Can investigators obtain that information from the service provider? Should they?+ Also on Network World: Cops use pacemaker data to charge homeowner with arson, insurance fraud + Issues of privacy increase as IoT sensors collect more information about us. What rights do individuals have over the information collected about them? Can the accuracy of sensor data be trusted?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Inside Exxon’s Effort to Scale Homegrown Codes, Keep Architectural Pace

Many oil and gas exploration shops have invested many years and many more millions of dollars into homegrown codes, which is critical internally (competitiveness, specialization, etc.) but leaves gaps in the ability to quickly exploit new architectures that could lead to better performance and efficiency.

That tradeoff between architectural agility and continuing to scale a complex, in-house base of codes is one that many companies with HPC weigh—and as one might imagine, oil and gas giant, ExxonMobil is no different.

The company came to light last week with news that it scaled one of its mission-critical simulation codes on the

Inside Exxon’s Effort to Scale Homegrown Codes, Keep Architectural Pace was written by Nicole Hemsoth at The Next Platform.

LTE speeds outpace home internet with new Qualcomm and Intel modems

With every new generation of smartphone, LTE connections get faster. That's because the devices have faster modems that can transfer data at unprecedented download speeds.The top modem providers are Intel and Qualcomm, whose cellular chips are used in the iPhone. On Tuesday they both announced modems that will push LTE connections to speeds well over those of regular home internet connections.Qualcomm unveiled the X20 LTE chipset, which can transfer data at speeds of up to 1.2Gbps. Intel announced the XMM 7560 LTE modem, which can download data at speeds of up to 1Gbps.However, cellular networks aren't yet designed to handle such fast speeds. One exception is Telstra, an Australian telecommunications company, which has launched a gigabit LTE service for commercial use in that country.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

LTE speeds outpace home internet with new Qualcomm and Intel modems

With every new generation of smartphone, LTE connections get faster. That's because the devices have faster modems that can transfer data at unprecedented download speeds.The top modem providers are Intel and Qualcomm, whose cellular chips are used in the iPhone. On Tuesday they both announced modems that will push LTE connections to speeds well over those of regular home internet connections.Qualcomm unveiled the X20 LTE chipset, which can transfer data at speeds of up to 1.2Gbps. Intel announced the XMM 7560 LTE modem, which can download data at speeds of up to 1Gbps.However, cellular networks aren't yet designed to handle such fast speeds. One exception is Telstra, an Australian telecommunications company, which has launched a gigabit LTE service for commercial use in that country.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

ARM buys Mistbase and NextG-Com to extend its reach in IoT

Chip designer ARM has a new strategy for the internet of things: to offer complete solutions "from application software to antenna."ARM has typically left it to licensees of its microprocessor designs to add their own wide-area radio modems and other circuitry essential for the chips at the heart of smartphones and other connected devices. That's the case with Qualcomm, for example, which packages ARM's processor core with its own LTE modems to deliver the chips at the heart of Apple's iPhones.But now ARM wants to deliver the whole stack itself, at least for low-power, low-bandwidth devices, ARM wireless business general manager Paul Williamson said in a blog post Tuesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to communicate from a Linux shell: Email, instant messaging

I get a lot of questions on how to perform various tasks from a Linux shell/terminal. In the interest of making a simple cheat sheet—something I can point people to that will help them get rolling with terminal powers—what follows are my recommendations for how to perform various types of communication from your shell. I’m talking about the normal sort of communication most people perform via a web browser (or a handful of graphical applications) nowadays: Email, instant messaging, that sort of thing. Except, you know, running them entirely in a terminal—which you can run just about anywhere: in an SSH session on a remote server, on a handheld device, or even on your Android phone/tablet. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New York State cybersecurity rules and the skills shortage

While the cybersecurity industry was knee-deep in vision, rhetoric and endless cocktail parties at the RSA Conference, the State of New York introduced new cybersecurity regulations for the financial services industry. The Department of Financial Services (DFS) rules (23 NYCRR 500) go into effect next week on March 1, 2017.Anyone who has reviewed similar cybersecurity regulations will find requirements in 23 NYCRR 500 familiar, so while the regulations are somewhat broader than others, there are obvious common threads. In reviewing the document, however, section 500.10 caught my eye. Here is the text from this section:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New York State cybersecurity rules and the skills shortage

While the cybersecurity industry was knee-deep in vision, rhetoric and endless cocktail parties at the RSA Conference, the State of New York introduced new cybersecurity regulations for the financial services industry. The Department of Financial Services (DFS) rules (23 NYCRR 500) go into effect next week on March 1, 2017.Anyone who has reviewed similar cybersecurity regulations will find requirements in 23 NYCRR 500, so while the regulations are somewhat broader than other similar stipulations, there are obvious common threads. In reviewing the document, however, section 500.10 caught my eye. Here is the text from this section:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New York State Cybersecurity Rules and the Skills Shortage

While the cybersecurity industry was knee-deep in vision, rhetoric, and endless cocktail parties at the RSA Conference, the State of New York introduced new cybersecurity regulations for the financial services industry.  The DFS regulations (23 NYCRR 500) go into effect next week on March 1, 2017.  Here’s a link to a pdf document describing the regulations. Anyone who has reviewed similar cybersecurity regulations will find requirements in 23 NYCRR 500, so while the regulations are somewhat broader than other similar stipulations, there are obvious common threads.  In reviewing the document however, section 500.10 caught my eye.  Here is the text from this section:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New York State Cybersecurity Rules and the Skills Shortage

While the cybersecurity industry was knee-deep in vision, rhetoric, and endless cocktail parties at the RSA Conference, the State of New York introduced new cybersecurity regulations for the financial services industry.  The DFS regulations (23 NYCRR 500) go into effect next week on March 1, 2017.  Here’s a link to a pdf document describing the regulations. Anyone who has reviewed similar cybersecurity regulations will find requirements in 23 NYCRR 500, so while the regulations are somewhat broader than other similar stipulations, there are obvious common threads.  In reviewing the document however, section 500.10 caught my eye.  Here is the text from this section:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

EFF: Congress considers making it illegal to protect consumer privacy online

“When you go online you reveal a tremendous amount of private information about yourself,” wrote the Electronics Frontier Foundation (EFF). “What you browse, what you purchase, who you communicate with—all reveal something personal about you.” These are examples of what your ISP knows about you.But it’s more than that for people with smart connected devices. Think about a smart refrigerator. As former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler asked, “Who would have ever imagined that what you have in your refrigerator would be information available to AT&T, Comcast, or whoever your network provider is?” Who would have thought they could sell that type of information?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

EFF: Congress considers making it illegal to protect consumer privacy online

“When you go online you reveal a tremendous amount of private information about yourself,” wrote the Electronics Frontier Foundation (EFF). “What you browse, what you purchase, who you communicate with—all reveal something personal about you.” These are examples of what your ISP knows about you.But it’s more than that for people with smart connected devices. Think about a smart refrigerator. As former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler asked, “Who would have ever imagined that what you have in your refrigerator would be information available to AT&T, Comcast, or whoever your network provider is?” Who would have thought they could sell that type of information?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

EFF: Congress is considering making it illegal to protect consumer privacy online

“When you go online you reveal a tremendous amount of private information about yourself,” wrote the EFF. “What you browse, what you purchase, who you communicate with—all reveal something personal about you.” These are examples of what your ISP knows about you.But it’s more than that for people with smart connected devices. Think about a smart refrigerator. As former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler asked, “Who would have ever imagined that what you have in your refrigerator would be information available to AT&T, Comcast, or whoever your network provider is?” Who would have thought they could sell that type of information?The FCC did something about that last year by putting privacy protections in place for when you use your broadband provider.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

EFF: Congress is considering making it illegal to protect consumer privacy online

“When you go online you reveal a tremendous amount of private information about yourself,” wrote the EFF. “What you browse, what you purchase, who you communicate with—all reveal something personal about you.” These are examples of what your ISP knows about you.But it’s more than that for people with smart connected devices. Think about a smart refrigerator. As former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler asked, “Who would have ever imagined that what you have in your refrigerator would be information available to AT&T, Comcast, or whoever your network provider is?” Who would have thought they could sell that type of information?The FCC did something about that last year by putting privacy protections in place for when you use your broadband provider.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Breaking through the cybersecurity bubble

For many in the cybersecurity space, the world revolves around the attack vector. Many security vendors narrowly focus on their version of the prevent, defend and respond paradigm—focusing on their purported supremacy and on making their case to get a piece of the enterprise security budget pie. At the recent RSA Conference in San Francisco, however, there were some hopeful signs that this narrow view and myopic perspective is evolving—at least for some. “Don't draw lines that separate different fields. Draw connections that bring them together,” implored RSA CTO Dr. Zulfikar Ramzan in the opening keynote as he called for business-driven security. “In my experience, today's security professionals must also draw connections between security details and business objectives.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amazon Prime Members Get 20% off Halo Wars 2 Ultimate Edition For Xbox One – Deal Alert

For a limited time, if you're an Amazon Prime Member (or have a free trial -- get one here) you'll see the price drop an extra 20% on Halo Wars 2 Ultimate Edition for Xbox One. Price drop activates when you add it to your cart, and sinks the price from $79.88 to $63.99. Combining tactical combat with card-based strategy, your deck is your army in all new Blitz mode as you build collections of powerful Halo vehicles and troops and command those units in fast-action matches. See the discounted Halo Wars 2 Ultimate Edition on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Breaking through the cybersecurity bubble

For many in the cybersecurity space, the world revolves around the attack vector. Many security vendors narrowly focus on their version of the prevent, defend and respond paradigm—focusing on their purported supremacy and on making their case to get a piece of the enterprise security budget pie.At the recent RSA Conference in San Francisco, however, there were some hopeful signs that this narrow view and myopic perspective is evolving—at least for some.“Don't draw lines that separate different fields. Draw connections that bring them together,” implored RSA CTO Dr. Zulfikar Ramzan in the opening keynote as he called for business-driven security. “In my experience, today's security professionals must also draw connections between security details and business objectives.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here