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With the release of Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 2.5, a core pillar of our strategy is to deliver new capabilities faster to help our customers  better manage infrastructure, networks, security policies, and application deployments with ease. Aligned with that strategy, we are introducing feature flags, which will allow greater control over when these new features are activated within Ansible Automation Platform environments.

What is a feature flag?

A feature flag allows developers and system administrators like you to turn specific features of the platform on or off, during installation. This gives you the ability to control when a new feature is introduced during a product release lifecycle:

  • Assess the need for new features within the teams of your organization, and progressively roll out new functionalities as required
  • Test new features in isolated environments, and then activate them for the rest of your organization only after you're confident in them
  • Test a new feature based on internal policies and processes for product onboarding and certification, which allows you to become comfortable with new features before moving them to production or wider user adoption

Why are feature flags important?

Feature flags give you the opportunity to perform enhanced testing. We all like to test new things to see whether they support business requirements. The ability to toggle features on or off enables rapid experimentation.

Feature flags also help drive innovation. Your teams can conduct A/B tests, pilot new functionalities, and gather real-time feedback so Red Hat can iterate upon and improve the features that are important to you, and align with your business objectives. This accelerates development life cycles and ensures new features are vetted by you before being fully integrated into your environments.

As feature flags allow for controlled rollouts, new features can be tested in specific environments or by particular user groups before being fully deployed across your production environments. While experimental features are exactly that, with feature flags, you can easily avoid any potential compatibility issues that might otherwise impact production systems. With the ability to enable or disable features as you see fit, you can validate advanced new features in real-world settings for a smoother deployment and test experience.

Tailored automation for different teams 

Different teams within the same organization often have distinct requirements for automation. With feature flags, you can enable or disable specific features based on what each team needs, creating a customized automation environment. In addition, if your organization has specific security policies that require only the product capabilities or features in use can be installed, you can easily turn these off.

Upgrades 

Feature flags ease testing new platform capabilities in a staged manner. You can gradually adopt new features without having to commit to full system-wide upgrades and any recertification requirements. You can upgrade your Ansible Automation Platform to the latest version without having to enable new features you're not familiar with, ready for, or that may be too experimental for your organization. 

How do I enable feature flags?

You are able to work with features that are flagged by adding those features to your inventory file for the platform installer. There are two types of flagged features:

  • Private: Invitation only, with limited or specialized support, documented by private knowledge base articles shared by your account teams.
  • Public: Fully documented in the platform release notes.

Conclusion

The introduction of feature flags is just one more step in the continued evolution of Ansible Automation Platform, focusing on improving your overall automation experience. With greater control, flexibility, and security, you play an invaluable role in the innovation and growth of the Ansible Automation Platform.

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