The consequences of not patching are everywhere: remember the Log4j vulnerability that grants hackers complete access to your devices? The best way to prevent this from happening is to use a patched version of Log4j — so why did this become a catastrophic and prolific security vulnerability event? A: Because people hate, forget, or simply dismiss patching as a labor-intensive part of managing their infrastructure.

Computing environments are more dynamic, distributed, and complex than ever. Observability tools help collect, monitor, and interpret the data they generate — like logs, metrics, and traces — to give IT teams and leaders real-time insights that can help detect issues, troubleshoot solutions, and improve the reliability of their IT systems. But observability tools can’t do their job without a strong infrastructure foundation and the right tools to manage it.

Continuous compliance and risk management can help keep your organization safe as the threat landscape changes and expands each year. The IT operations team is no longer just responsible for a few machines; they are managing complex environments that span across technologies, across teams, and at scale. They're expected to work fast while simultaneously considering the often-conflicting requirements of cost, compliance, and even workforce skills gaps.

When’s the last time you did something without knowing how it could turn out? Surprises can add a little excitement to your day-to-day, but one place they’re not really welcome is in infrastructure code. That’s why we have change impact analysis, a method of predicting the effect one change can have on other parts of a system before you make it. Software change impact analysis, as you might imagine, assesses how changes to a piece of software can affect other parts of the same system.

CIS Benchmarks are important for security and compliance. In this blog, you'll get an overview, plus learn how to enforce CIS Benchmarks with Puppet.