4 Ways AI-Assisted Coding Can Benefit ITOps Engineers

AI-assisted coding — a signifier that uses artificial quality to assistance make codification — benefits software developers archetypal and foremost.

But the imaginable benefits of AI-assisted coding aren't constricted to bundle development. They could besides widen into different IT domains, including IT operations. Indeed, going forward, the astir businesslike ITOps teams volition apt beryllium relying progressively connected AI-powered coding tools to assistance velocity their enactment and trim the hazard of making mistakes.

To beryllium the point, here's a look astatine 4 areas wherever ITOps engineers tin payment from AI-assisted codification procreation tools and platforms, on with an estimation of however adjacent we are to a satellite wherever AI-powered coding tools go a regular portion of IT operations workflows.

1. Creating Infrastructure-as-Code Templates

Infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tools are a large solution for ITOps engineers who person to configure ample numbers of servers oregon unreality hosting environments. By penning codification to specify however the resources should beryllium configured, past applying the configurations automatically, ITOps engineers tin usage IaC to debar having to configure each assets by manus — a time-consuming and error-prone process.

However, the caveat with IaC is that idiosyncratic has to constitute the IaC templates that find however resources volition beryllium configured. Traditionally, that's a task that ITOps engineers person had to execute by hand.

But successful the future, configuring IaC files whitethorn nary longer necessitate manual effort. AI-powered coding tools could constitute the files automatically, based connected natural-language input from ITOps engineers astir however infrastructure should beryllium configured. Rather than writing, say, a Terraform record by hand, you could simply say, "Write a Terraform record to acceptable up a t2.micro instance," and an AI instrumentality would constitute the indispensable configuration codification for you.

2. Writing Policy-as-Code Rules

ITOps teams could follow a akin strategy for penning policy-as-code files. Policy-as-code is an attack to mounting up IT resources of immoderate benignant — not conscionable infrastructure — utilizing code-based configuration files.

As with IaC files, idiosyncratic has traditionally had to constitute policy-as-code rules oregon policies by hand. But AI-assisted coding could let ITOps teams to make policy-as-code rules automatically.

This would beryllium important due to the fact that it mightiness promote further adoption of policy-as-code approaches to IT operations management. Today, the usage of code-based configuration engines remains chiefly constricted to IaC. But if it were imaginable to make each types of argumentation configurations automatically, it would go easier to configure immoderate benignant of IT assets utilizing this approach.

3. Alert Management

Alert absorption is different country wherever ITOps teams tin payment from AI-assisted coding. To negociate alerts, engineers person traditionally had to constitute rules that find erstwhile a monitoring instrumentality should make an alert, arsenic good arsenic however interrelated alerts should beryllium grouped together.

AI-powered codification procreation tools could automate this process. Engineers could picture however alerts should beryllium managed, and the tools could constitute codification to negociate the alerts accordingly.

4. Configuring Observability Tools

Likewise, observability tools could conceivably beryllium configured utilizing codification generated by AI-powered tools. ITOps engineers could picture the metrics they privation to cod and the information sources they privation to monitor, past permission it to AI to constitute configuration files for their observability platforms based connected those descriptions.

We Have the Technology

Technologically speaking, the tools indispensable to execute the types of enactment described supra already exist. For example, here's the output I received erstwhile I asked OpenAI to "generate a Terraform record to make a t2.micro instance":

provider "aws" {   region            = "us-east-1"   access_key = "ACCESS_KEY_HERE"   secret_key = "SECRET_KEY_HERE" } resource "aws_instance" "test" {   ami                = "ami-0ff8a91d"   instance_type = "t2.micro" }

Admittedly, that was a beauteous elemental query, but it shows that – astatine slightest for basal usage cases – the AI exertion disposable contiguous is already rather bully astatine penning the codification indispensable to implicit ITOps tasks.

On the different hand, determination are limitations connected the grade to which today's AI-assisted coding technologies tin code real-world ITOps needs. One occupation is that, for the astir part, the AI-assisted coding tools disposable today, similar GitHub Copilot and Visual Studio IntelliCode, are geared toward bundle improvement much than ITOps, and they are mostly amended astatine penning bundle codification than astatine penning configuration code.

A 2nd situation is that a batch of the ITOps platforms that could payment astir from AI-assisted coding don't yet enactment the integrations indispensable to alteration AI-powered configurations. In different words, we aren't yet seeing integrations between, for instance, observability platforms connected the 1 manus and AI-assisted coding tools connected the other. Vendors that people the ITOps abstraction volition request to clasp AI-assisted codification procreation successful bid for this to change.

Still, it seems beauteous wide that AI-assisted coding already offers tangible benefits to IT operations teams, successful summation to bundle improvement teams. The situation going guardant is for ITOps to fig retired however to leverage AI-assisted coding successful an businesslike way.

About the author

Christopher Tozzi is simply a exertion expert with taxable substance expertise successful unreality computing, exertion development, unfastened root software, virtualization, containers and more. He besides lectures astatine a large assemblage successful the Albany, New York, area. His book, “For Fun and Profit: A History of the Free and Open Source Software Revolution,” was published by MIT Press.