Government agencies looking to manage and ensure the security of hybrid cloud environments must implement an “everything as code” approach and automation, said Mark Anderson, associate principal solutions architect at Red Hat.
In an article posted on Carahsoft.com, Anderson wrote that the everything-as-code approach “means thinking about how to approach operations in such a way that everything is controlled, written, and executed as code without exception.”
He discussed how this approach can help agencies record changes in processes, compare them to previous versions, and improve internal collaboration.
Anderson cited how automation tools like the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform can enable agencies to deploy patches, configure systems, orchestrate advanced workflows, track cyber threats, vulnerabilities, and field programs, and reduce the risk of insider threats by creating agent accounts.
“These proxy accounts allow organizations to add parameters about who can access these systems and track and maintain a record of who has scheduled and run updates. The latter capability can be vital when performing a root cause analysis of a security incident to provide the information needed for audit purposes,” the Red Hat executive added.
Anderson, an experienced leader in enterprise systems development, data engineering and consulting, highlighted the importance of automation and how it allows agencies to promote reuse and knowledge sharing and reduce the burden on the operations team.
He also mentioned how Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform can help agencies facilitate collaboration between their DevSecOps teams.
