Author:
Kimball Johnson
The Hidden Cost of Uncontrolled Automation Execution
Automation failures often stem not from bad tools, but from unmanaged execution. When separate approved workflows collide, organizations pay hidden costs in investigation, coordination, recovery, audits, and delays. Platform-governed automation provides a single trusted execution path, improving visibility, control, accountability, and trust without requiring teams to rewrite existing automation.
Read moreWhy the Future of Automation Is Platform-Governed, Not Tool-Centric
Most enterprises have succeeded with automation, but often in disconnected silos using tools such as Chef, Ansible, Puppet, Terraform and custom scripts. This creates "automation islands" where teams lack visibility into each other's changes, making audits, troubleshooting and governance difficult. Rather than attempting costly rip-and-replace standardisation efforts, organisations should implement a shared execution layer that governs how automation is executed across tools. This approach improves visibility, auditability, execution control and operational consistency while allowing teams to continue using their existing automation investments.
Read moreUpgrading from CINC to Chef 360: Building a Future-Ready Automation Platform
A practical guide to upgrading from CINC to Chef 360, covering migration phases, key considerations and how to transition to a cloud-native, policy-driven automation platform while minimizing risk and maximizing the long-term value.
Read moreOperating Infrastructure at Scale - Beyond Jobs and Workflows
Organizations are shifting from isolated servers to shared, dynamic infrastructure platforms, increasing the need for continuous visibility and control at scale. While automation jobs and workflows help execute changes, they fall short in maintaining a trusted, real-time understanding of system state. Over time, drift, loss of context and fragmented processes increase operational risk and cost. The key challenge is not executing change, but ensuring systems remain aligned with intended state under constant change. A modern operating model must link execution with ongoing validation, enabling teams to detect drift early, maintain compliance and act with confidence. Chef 360 addresses this gap by combining automation with operational context, giving teams a continuous, reliable view of infrastructure posture across environments. This shifts operations from tracking past actions to maintaining real-time operational confidence.
Read moreModernize Automation Without Rip and Replace: How Chef 360 Can Help
Modernizing IT doesn’t have to mean ripping and replacing existing systems. As complexity from cloud, AI and compliance grows, teams need a more practical approach that builds on what already works. Progress Chef 360 enables this shift by letting teams reuse existing automation, gain unified visibility, enforce compliance and scale efficiently. With AI-powered capabilities, it helps organisations evolve their infrastructure steadily - without disruption or unnecessary overhead.
Read moreThe Pathway to a New World Skills Validation Program
About a year ago, I talked about how we were going to refresh the Chef Certification program, and the need to update it to match our modernised product line up. Since then a lot has happened, both at Chef Software and in the world in general.
Read moreLearn Chef in a Whole New Way
Today at ChefConf Online we took the wraps off Learn Chef, our new online learning platform for the Chef community. Three years ago we launched Learn Chef Rally, which brought together our online training in a single, no-cost offering.
Read more10 Years of DevOps
10 years of DevOps? That’s a bit of a controversial title, but Jody Wolfborn and I have just returned from speaking at the 10th Anniversary DevOpsDays in Ghent, Belgium.
Read moreChef Certification Refresh
In the past 6 months, Chef has taken a number of big steps forward as we modernize our automation solutions including the announcement of Chef Enterprise Automation Stack, the new versions of Chef Infra, Chef InSpec and Chef Habitat, and a shift to 100% Open Source software.
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