Complementary stack part 2: Ansible Automation Platform and CMP

Where the execution layer ends

The Complementary Stack Series examines the increasingly blurry boundaries between the tools platform teams use to execute automation, provision infrastructure, deliver self-service, and govern the entire process.

Part 1 established the broader framework. Part 2 puts Ansible Automation Platform under the microscope. Ansible is exceptionally good at configuration management and executing automation reliably at enterprise scale, and newer capabilities such as its self-service automation portal make that automation accessible to a broader audience.

But making Ansible automation self-service is different from governing a request that spans multiple systems. This brief examines that boundary and shows how CloudBolt CMP can manage the catalog, approvals, policies, costs, and cross-tool workflow while Ansible continues doing what it does best: executing the automation.

In this brief, you’ll learn:

• What Ansible Automation Platform is designed to do exceptionally well
• What Ansible’s self-service portal adds and where its scope ends
• Why self-service automation isn’t the same as cross-platform governance
• How CloudBolt can orchestrate a request while Ansible remains the execution engine
• How teams can add governance without rebuilding years of existing Ansible content

The practical pairing is straightforward: CloudBolt governs the request, then hands the appropriate work to Ansible for execution.

Next in the series: Part 3 applies the same analysis to Terraform and asks where infrastructure provisioning ends and infrastructure governance begins.

Read part 1 | Read part 3 | Read part 4 | Read part 5

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