If you are managing infrastructure at scale, automation is essential. In the ever-expanding toolkit of DevOps engineers and IT operations leaders, Red Hat Ansible remains one of the most trusted platforms to get it done.
In a MyBroadband podcast that premiered on 11 June 2025, Obsidian Systems, an established supplier of open-source solutions, dove deep into the evolving role of Ansible in modern environments. Whether you were managing thousands of nodes, juggling compliance demands, or looking to speed up provisioning in hybrid-cloud setups, this episode offered practical insight from the people who worked in the trenches every day.
Why listen?
The podcast explores:
- The business case for automation in 2025 and how to get it past internal gatekeepers.
- What is new in the Ansible ecosystem, and how does it fit into broader DevSecOps strategies?
- Real-world South African use cases for Ansible across sectors like finance, retail, and telecoms.
- Where Ansible plays best: infrastructure as code, network automation, and configuration management.
- The link between Red Hat Ansible and platform engineering, and why it matters now more than ever.
“There is still a misconception that Ansible is only for provisioning,” says Karl Fischer, CTO at Obsidian. “What we are seeing is that Ansible is becoming the backbone of secure automation. It is not just about pushing code but about consistency, visibility, and resilience at scale.”
Why Ansible is more critical than ever
Many South African businesses are wrestling with fragmented, multi-platform IT environments from on-prem to hybrid cloud, from Linux to Windows, where automation often remains siloed and inconsistent. Ansible offers a path forward by serving as a unified, scalable automation framework that works across the entire stack. It helps teams move beyond brittle, one-off scripts toward reusable, consistent workflows that reduce errors, accelerate delivery, and cut costs. In short, Ansible is the ultimate enabler for operational resilience in modern enterprise environments.
The podcast also addresses:
- How South African teams are using Ansible to bridge skills gaps.
- The integration with Red Hat Satellite, OpenShift, and other enterprise platforms.
- Community contributions and new modules are worth watching.
This episode is not just for Red Hat enthusiasts. If you are an IT manager, platform engineer, DevOps lead, or automation architect, this podcast is your chance to hear from Obsidian’s top minds on what is next in enterprise automation and how to get the most from your tooling stack.
About the guest: Karl Fischer, CTO at Obsidian Systems
Karl Fischer is the Chief Technology Officer at Obsidian Systems and a leading voice in South Africa’s DevOps and open-source community. With more than a decade of experience driving automation strategies in complex enterprise environments, Karl brings deep expertise in tools like Red Hat Ansible, GitOps, and infrastructure as code. He is a regular speaker at industry events, including Red Hat Day Cape Town, where his live Ansible demonstrations have drawn wide acclaim. Known for bridging hands-on technical insight with a community-first philosophy, Karl’s work empowers IT teams to scale faster, operate more securely, and innovate with confidence.
Where to listen:
Find the episode on the MyBroadband Podcast page or via your favourite streaming service or click here: https://youtu.be/VuPm6PKUVyw
Whether you are just starting your automation journey or scaling to enterprise-wide orchestration, Ansible offers a consistent framework that lets you define once and deploy anywhere. In this episode, Obsidian Systems shares how South African businesses can move beyond isolated scripts to adopt cohesive, repeatable automation workflows that work across Linux, Windows, cloud, and on-prem environments.
