CASE STUDY: How Microsoft uses Ansible?
By: Zainab Bhabhrawala
Tags: Arthbylw, Facts, Thanks To Sir Vimal Daga, Righteducation, Vimal Daga

Microsoft is a multinational company which was founded on 4th April 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As of June 30, 2015 Microsoft has a global annual revenue of 86.83 Billion and around 150,000 total employees throughout the world, it develops, manufactures, licenses and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices.

Microsoft has set a goal of end-to-end digitization, an approach that will simplify processes and experiences for end users across all of its services and applications. To simplify and scale at pace with market demands, Microsoft looked to create a scalable, technology-agnostic automation framework that would reduce manual workloads with efficient tools and processes with standardized, tested code. This new solution would replace its legacy production automation capabilities, supported by a more collaborative, iterative development approach.

So, Microsoft chose to work with Ansible for automating their day-to-day tasks by deploying Ansible playbooks to the network through a centralized playbook version control system. Microsoft has used its staged Ansible environments to automate routine engineering tasks, such as logic-based changes to ensures services are available to customers. Ansible-based IT automation also helps the company follow a phased, iterative approach to code creation that protects code quality with scheduled releases of tested, verified network configurations.

This DevOps approach to both work tasks and professional development has led to greater understanding and collaboration between teams. One engineer created Zero to Hero, a training series on automation concepts and writing Ansible playbooks. Additionally, there are now self-hosted Python learning groups, and more than 100 active participants discuss and share information in an internal automation community. Equipped with new skills and confidence, Microsoft’s teams are finding new, creative ways to solve business challenges using code and playbooks.

Implementing Ansible has helped Microsoft save thousands of work hours per year, including several weeks’ worth of work by reducing production downtime and network configuration defects. By completing code peer reviews and gated check-ins through preproduction environments, the company has reduced the amount of defects and bugs introduced into its production environment. This approach ultimately reduces major incidents and outages, improving network quality.

Standardizing on a user-friendly automation solution has not only helped Microsoft solve complexity by creating a single source of truth for services, dependencies, and integrations, but also made it easier for nonengineers to focus on service creation with peer-reviewed code. DevOps teams can now work more efficiently to create new, valuable features and services for end users while maintaining production performance.

By focusing on people, process, and technology, Microsoft has evolved in its automation journey from manual scripting and changes to continuous integration and delivery approach supported by a centralized, service-based architecture. with the time and money saved by adopting standardized, stable automation, Microsoft’s teams can now focus on creating innovative infrastructure solutions that provide higher service quality to end users.

This approach creates opportunities for Microsoft to continue scaling to support customer demands at a much faster pace.