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    Puppet Labs Acquisition Paves Path to IT Automation

    Interest in IT automation is on the rise, driven by the need to manage IT at scale in the age of the cloud. The challenge many IT organizations face when trying to implement IT automation, however, is that they don’t have the programming skills needed to succeed.

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    To address that specific issue, Puppet Labs, the provider of open source tools for automating IT, announced today that it has acquired Cloudsmith. The company is the provider of an integrated development environment called Geppetto which it used to create a software-as-a-service (SaaS) application known as Stack Hammer, which automates the deployment of the Puppet Labs modules.

    According to Puppet Labs CEO Luke Kanies, Puppet Labs intends to relaunch Geppetto while incorporating other Cloudsmith technologies into its future offerings.

    Kanies credits Cloudsmith with using Puppet’s core technology to create workflows that simplify the deployment of Puppet Modules that IT organizations can use to automate their operations. While the concept of IT automation is hardly new, Puppet Labs has been at the forefront of an open source movement that is leading broader adoption of IT automation.

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    While automation naturally makes some IT administrators uncomfortable, the fact remains that most organizations can no longer afford to keep hiring admins to manage IT systems that are growing at rates that most organizations can’t manually manage.

    As IT organizations become more proficient with IT automation tools, there should be a corresponding increase in the number of applications and systems that any organization can practically afford to deploy. After all, the single biggest cost of IT is still the labor required to deploy and manage. By reducing that cost through automation, it becomes anybody’s guess as to how many applications and servers any administrator can now be expected to manage. But it’s safe to say that number will reach a higher magnitude than most IT organizations previously ever thought possible.

    Mike Vizard
    Mike Vizard
    Michael Vizard is a seasoned IT journalist, with nearly 30 years of experience writing and editing about enterprise IT issues. He is a contributor to publications including Programmableweb, IT Business Edge, CIOinsight and UBM Tech. He formerly was editorial director for Ziff-Davis Enterprise, where he launched the company’s custom content division, and has also served as editor in chief for CRN and InfoWorld. He also has held editorial positions at PC Week, Computerworld and Digital Review.

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