Turbonomic's ability to understand how resources are used and to provide recommendations is a blessing. If, on top of it, Turbonomic automates the whole process from detecting the inefficiency to apply the changes, that's the main reason of Turbonomic's success.
Example of Turbonomic recommendations
Challenge
Unfortunately not all companies can leverage this automation capability because some of them don't allow "external" tools to automate their infrastructure. Maybe because they have a strict approval process, maybe because they have a source of truth that uses Terraform/Ansible to provision the infrastructure....the fact is these companies don't get all the amazing functionality that Turbonomic has to offer.
For this type of situations, Turbonomic provided the "Action Script Server" that allows us to script any further integrations that we needed, however this is not a viable solutions for some customers where they don't have the skills or the time to build those scripts.
Example of GitHub Helm chart
Solution
In IBM, we realised we needed a way to create automations faster, not only available for the scripter/developers but available to everyone, to the SMEs that know how their tools work. We realised we needed to shorten the time it takes to build this integrations, what we call "time to value". For this reason, IBM released IBM Rapid Automation, a solution that democratizes the access to automation, allowing the SMEs to build their automations in a no/low code environment with hundreds of out of the box integrations with the major vendors that allows everyone to create integrations in minutes without the need of learning python/nodejs/ansible or understanding how the APIs of those vendors work.
CI/CD Integration
Let's see how IBM Rapid Automation simplifies the integration of Turbonomic with CI/CD pipelines, sources of truth and/or Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
Let's have a look at this scenario, customer is using Turbonomic to optimize their infrastructure, and they are using GitHub as source of truth that contains all the configurations of their infrastructure. On top of it, they are using Terraform to regularly make sure their resources are configured they should. They are not using Turbonomic to its max value because any automatic modification done by Turbonomic will be reversed by Terraform :( .
What if we could configure Turbonomic to go to GitHub and apply the recommendation there? As mentioned before, that could be very complex if we have to create custom scripts from scratch in the Action Script Server....or it could be very simple if we create it in IBM Rapid Automation.
In less than 30 minutes, with IBM Rapid Automation any of the SMEs could build a no/low code workflow that:
- Connects to GitHub and grabs the HELM chart
- Updates the values with the recommendation from Turbonomic
- Updates the HELM in GitHub
- Calls Terraform to execute the new config
Example of no/low code workflow
How is it possible that "anyone" can create this workflow in minutes? Two reasons:
- No/low code approach: you don't need to learn the syntax of any programming language, just drag and drop the building block to the canvas. You have the same options like in Python (IF/ELSE, Loop, Case, Try/Catch....) but easier to use
- Out of the Box API integrations: all the major APIs from the major vendors are "digested" and ready to use. This means that you don't need to learn how the authentication works, which API endpoints are available, what body or json file they need or what kind of output that API endpoint will generate.
Example of some of the Out of the Box Integrations
Example of building block configuration
Let's make Turbonomic even better
There is no reason to not integrate Turbonomic with all your IT environment and make sure Turbonomic follows the way your company works, from solutions such as GitHub, GitLab, Ansible or Terraform to ITSM solutions such as BMC Helix, Jira or FreshService, because with IBM Rapid Automation you can build your own automations in hours, not in days or weeks.
#Spotlight