Why Ansible has become the devops darling for software automation

Named after a fictional communications device, Ansible is an open-source automation engine that automates software provisioning, configuration management and application deployment. [...]a quick look at StackShare's list of Top 5 Most In-Demand Devops Tools shows Ansible in third place in terms of job openings listing the tool as a required skill, just behind GitHub and Docker. Jim Whitehurst, the company's CEO, said recently that Ansible is included in about a third of all Red Hat deals. [ What CIOs don't know about open source software ] So what exactly makes Ansible so attractive? Part of the reason for this is that there was a perception in the software development and devops community that Ansible's support offering was not as good as that of Puppet or Chef. [ 5 rock-solid Linux distros for developers ] "There are pros and cons to both approaches, but because Ansible is agentless it has an...