Astra Automation

Main article: IT Service Management (ITSM)

2024

Start of Astra Automation sales

Astra Group on February 16, 2024 announced the start of sales of the Astra Automation platform. According to the developers, the Astra Automation platform, fully adapted to the realities of the domestic market, helps to increase the efficiency of management processes and helps reduce the total cost of owning IT resources. It also automates the installation and upgrade of software, the configuration of network equipment, and the creation of security policies that comply with both regulatory requirements and internal client regulations.

Astra Automation is a single automation solution that helps the IT team close all needs related to system maintenance and integration, data management, cybersecurity and technical support. The product is assembled on the basis of proven Open-Source technologies in accordance with the requirements of secure development and carefully tested by the vendor's specialists involved in the development of automation tools.

At the heart of the platform is Ansible core, one of the world's most popular configuration management tools. The task of scaling automation at the enterprise level is solved by Astra Automation Controller, an application with a web interface running in the environment of the Astra Linux Server operating system. Astra Automation Controller is based on the source code of the AWX project and allows you to use both individually developed automation scripts (playbooks) and those provided by Astra Automation developers and available in the corresponding repository of ready-made Astra Group solutions - Astra Automation Hub.

Astra Automation helps system integrators and customers build and maintain an IT infrastructure based on the solutions of Astra Group and its partners, reducing the time to deploy and configure products, with guaranteed results. Astra Automation is becoming an indispensable assistant for technical professionals who need to regularly keep the IT environment up and running with a wide range of tasks. The use of this solution allows you to focus on automation itself, and not on its tools, helps reduce the cost of supporting the IT landscape, increase its manageability and security, and also reduces the risk of human error, Astra Group emphasized.

"A year and a half ago, Astra Group took a course towards developing tools for automating its software. Within this area, Astra Automation became the flagship product, and we successfully use its capabilities both to manage our own IT infrastructure and on software implementation projects with customers. We are confident that Astra Automation will become a fundamental tool for our customers and partners to help steer the course towards digital transformation, "said Kirill Dobrynin, Director of the Astra Group Automation Development Department.

Public testing of the pre-release version of Astra Automation was launched in early 2024. During this period, Astra Group partners and all interested customers were provided with a preliminary version of the platform for review. According to the company, the feedback received made it possible to record additional improvements in the roadmap for future releases of the new software product.

Start of public testing of Astra Automation platform

Astra Group on January 23, 2024 announced the launch of the Astra Automation platform. The solution is designed to automate the IT infrastructure built on the basis of the products of the Group and its partners. The official release date is scheduled for February 15, 2024, but as early as January 2024, a pre-release version of the platform for public testing is available to customers and partners of the vendor, the purpose of which is to receive direct feedback from users even before entering the market and take it into account in further road maps of the product.

Astra Automation is a software platform that allows you to automate the installation and update of software, configure network equipment, configure security rules (according to regulatory requirements or based on your own customer policies) and other routine IT infrastructure maintenance tasks that must be regularly solved by technical specialists.

Astra Automation is based on the source code of the Ansible open source project, which is being developed by the international IT community. A key component of the platform is Astra Automation Controller, an automation control center, a web-based application installed on Astra Linux Server and designed to perform various operations on managed nodes. Astra Automation Controller is based on the source code of the AWX OpenSource project and uses automation templates. They can be created independently or used prepared by the developer and placed in the Astra Automation Hub - a library of ready-made automation.

Astra Automation users are provided with Russian-language documentation and full technical support from the vendor. Astra Automation Hub provides templates for working with other Astra Group products, as well as software and hardware solutions of its partners as part of the Ready for Astra Automation program, which will be launched in the near future. The customer and the Group's partners can access the demo version including all the above options upon request sent to the personal manager. In the foreseeable future, the vendor intends to offer customers a full-fledged training course on working with the Astra Automation platform.

Customers and system integrators benefit from IT automation platforms such as Astra Automation. For customers, this includes reducing cost of ownership, improving the efficiency of engineering solutions, reducing human error, and accelerating the process of updating and scaling the IT infrastructure. Integrators, thanks to such tools, can reduce system deployment time, reduce the cost of their services and guarantee high-quality performance. I am convinced that our clients and partners, having tested the platform, will make sure of its convenience and effectiveness, - said Kirill Dobrynin, Director of the Automation Tools Development Department of Astra Group.