RackSpace Offers Complete Automation Solution for the Cloud
If you are a cloud engineer, you’ve probably heard of DevOps tools. These tools allow you to automate much of your daily workflow while allowing you to provide a truly scalable solution for your cloud. For administrators that are unfamiliar with this solution, one of the most popular DevOps tools is called Chef. Chef gives administrators the ability to set certain thresholds which will spur infrastructure automation tasks which helps your enterprise scale out as needed. Chef primarily works with Linux systems however Rackspace has decided to add support for Windows automation which will be available in the next couple of months.
DevOps and Chef can be setup to service nearly any type of large enterprise. This solution is best for larger enterprises that have had trouble with scaling out rapidly. Chef uses what is called cookbooks that tell the servers how to be configured once they are deployed. Based on whichever cookbook is defined by the administrator determines which settings are applied to the cloud host.
Rackspace has specialized in writing these types of cookbooks. For example, if a company needed Hadoop or MySQL rapidly configured, a cookbook would be used instead of manually setting up the server. This turns what used to be hours of configuration into a task that literally takes minutes.
Rackspace is releasing this technology to a test group right now. This cloud hosting solution should be available in a few months once Rackspace has concluded their beta phase. Rackspace has noted that there seems to be a shortage of technicians with working knowledge of Chef therefore Rackspace plans on providing training and support for its clients who adopt this cloud automation solution. Rackspace is actually taking applications for companies that would like to test this product. If you are interested in learning more or even using DevOps and Chef in your environment, head over to Rackspace’s DevOps website for more information.
