As part of HUIT’s newly relaunched Cloud Program, we are creating architectural standards and guidelines for HUIT infrastructure and applications in the Cloud. Recently, our Technology and Security Workgroup selected two new tools: GitHub Enterprise, a tool that centrally stores and secures code and enables reuse and cross-team collaboration, and Ansible Tower, a tool that provides automated management of environments and enables centralized support and security. The workgroup created requirements and evaluated a number of options and felt that these two were ultimately the best choices. We are excited to provide these common and shared tools across HUIT and hope that they will streamline work and make collaboration easier as they also improve our ability to automate in the cloud.
Who does this effect?
These tools effect application teams within HUIT moving or currently in the Cloud.
Why use these tools?
Let's look at the reasons for using each tool.
GitHub Enterprise:
- As we traced the dependencies for our services in the Cloud, we realized that a shared code repository was foundational to everything else.
- For application code, it’s a good idea. If you don’t use GitHub Enterprise, you may not be able to fully leverage automation in the future. That may mean migrating from another code repository, but we’ll be in a better place when we are all using the same one.
- For infrastructure code, it’s required. If you don’t use GitHub Enterprise, you won’t be able to use Ansible Tower.
Ansible Tower:
- Ansible Tower will provide a central place to view, access, and reuse standardized approaches to configure infrastructure in a repeatable and automatable fashion.
- Ansible Tower will be required to automate the management of infrastructure across multiple cloud vendors.
- In the future, we also anticipate using Ansible Tower as a gateway for ServiceNow configuration data.
What does this mean?
Let's consider what this means for each tool.
GitHub Enterprise:
- If you are currently searching for a code repository solution, the search is over!
- If you currently have code in an external or internal repository, be on the lookout for further information about migration plans on our website at cloud.huit.harvard.edu and via email.
Ansible Tower:
- If you currently use Ansible, we will be communicating more details about configuring access and migrating your existing codebase into GitHub Enterprise.
- If you don’t, we will reach out with more information about onboarding you.
What’s next?
Over the next few months we will be setting up enterprise environments for HUIT and creating operational plans for both tools. We will communicate timelines and next steps on our website at cloud.huit.harvard.edu, and email stakeholders directly.
For additional information about the architecture, please contact Anne Lurie at ann_lurie@harvard.edu or Erica Bradshaw at erica_bradshaw@harvard.edu.
For additional information about the operational plans, please reach out to Jefferson Burson at jefferson_burson@harvard.edu.