XLAB Steampunk’s Year in Review: A whole lot of (automation) magic

To say that the year raced by like a well-steamed machine is an understatement. No wonder, because looking back, the year was full of adventures! Join us on a trip down memory lane and celebrate our milestones.

New features

In our commitment to enhancing your Steampunk Spotter experience, we’ve rolled out a plethora of new features:

⚙️ Custom rules - Easily create and manage custom rules, written in universal human-readable language to simplify policy management across your cloud-native stack. Watch DEMO.

⚙️ Reporting - Generate comprehensive reports on playbook conditions, providing insights into potential improvements and highlighting critical issues that need attention. Watch DEMO.

⚙️ Assisted playbook writing - Speed up your playbook writing by simply defining your automation goals and letting Spotter suggest suitable tasks. Watch DEMO.

⚙️ Scan Profiles - Whether you want to refine your playbook, upgrade it, or ensure its secure execution, the scan profiles ensure that the results align with your specific objectives. Watch DEMO.

⚙️ Check management - Achieve compliance and quality by centrally controlling which checks to skip and which to always enforce across all your automation workflows. Watch DEMO.

Building upon these features we’ve transformed our Ansible Playbook scanning solution into a powerful Ansible Playbook Platform, designed for businesses seeking enhanced control, performance, and security in automation. Learn more about it.

Great user reviews

What fills our hearts with the most joy? Knowing that Ansible users absolutely love Steampunk Spotter! They’re not just fans; they’re shouting it from the rooftops, and we can’t help but beam with pride.

“It’s like having a personal playbook advisor, your own writing and managing assistant. Spotter is your one-stop solution.” - Sam R.

“Ansible security scanning, assisted playbook writing, and custom policies functionalities of Steampunk Spotter greatly simplify and fast track my Ansible development experience.” - Ioannis M.

“A must have if you use Ansible.” - Victor E.

See all user reviews

Fantastic Community

What makes us proudest? The fantastic community we’ve built. It’s full of people who are passionate about Ansible and eager to share their experiences with others.

We’ve been showered with amazing reviews, and we’re thrilled to give these accolades the spotlight they truly deserve. A massive thank you to each and every one of you, the real MVPs! Dive into their reviews and make sure to explore more of their fantastic content.

⚙️ Pythoholic showed how to use Spotter to make your coding smoother, your playbooks more powerful, and your automation even more efficient. Take a look.

⚙️ Arnav Bhati explored how to identify errors and gain valuable insights for smoother Ansible development. Take a look.

⚙️ Ioannis Moustakis dove into Spotter benefits and shared his experience using Spotter, leaving no gears unturned. Take a look.

⚙️ Daniel Schier put into spotlight how Spotter makes it easy to improve your Ansible playbooks, roles, and collections. Take a look.

⚙️ Stéphane Robert shared his views on how Spotter compliments Ansible Lint and how using both tools makes playbook writing as simple comme bonjour! Take a look.

Meeting fellow automation enthusiasts

One of our biggest surprises this year was when one of our most passionate Spotter enthusiasts, Luca Berton aka Ansible Pilot, dropped by our office for a visit and tour of our headquarters where automation magic is made! It was an amazing surprise, one to remember for sure :)

Exciting events

We’ve been attending and sponsoring events all over the world, and we’ve had a great time meeting our users and sharing automation expertise. Here are some of the highlights:

Red Hat Summit & Ansible Fest

We kicked it off with Ansible Community Day, where we held a session on how AI-powered Ansible Playbooks combined with open-source collaboration can streamline processes and transform the future of automation. Sounds interesting, right? Watch it on-demand.

Our CEO, Gregor Berginc, took center stage alongside Carl Buchmann and Sean Sullivan at the Ansible Community Day panel. There, he shared our wealth of experiences and expertise in developing high-quality Ansible Collections.

Then at Red Hat Summit & Ansible Fest our team was in high demand, showcasing live Spotter demos and dishing out our awesome swag. If you’re eager to snag some cool swag, catch us at upcoming events. And for a live demo, don’t wait – schedule it right away!

DevConf Brno

‘Twas the year for our Anže Luzar (THE Lead Toolchain Engineer) and Nejc Slabe (THE DevRel), First, they stole the spotlight in Brno, showing attendees how to effortlessly create, maintain and update your Ansible Playbooks with our Steampunk Spotter while. All while, of course, doling out swag and sharing hearty laughs.

Community Day in Berlin

Next stop: Berlin! There, they warmly said “Guten Tag” as they shared their expertise on Ansible Playbooks, demonstrated how Spotter effortlessly enhances open-source projects, and, most importantly, forged connections with the fantastic Ansible community. All this before bidding a cheerful “Tschüss”! (Oh look, there’s Luca! And his awesome book on Ansible, featuring Spotter. Another achievement ✔️)

Red Hat Partner Connect Madrid

Instead of saying goodbye to summer, we decided to say “Hola!” to sunny Madrid for another gathering with the delightful Ansible crowd. This time, it was our CEO Gregor Berginc, Assistant Director Katja Terglav and our PM Victor Estival who took charge, putting the spotlight on Spotter once again. Literally. ;) How awesome are the new t-shirts, right?

Steampunk Ansible Challenge

You’d think with all the exciting things we’re doing, that would be enough. Well, nope. We craved even more, so we came up with our own - the Steampunk Ansible Challenge.

Understanding the thrill developers get from solving puzzles, and noticing the scarcity of Ansible-focused challenges, we rolled up our sleeves and created a series of challenges where participants could put their playbook writing skills to the test. A big thank you to all for being a part of it! We hope you’ll join us next year.

Spotter Retreat Workshop

Our team of enthusiastic Ansible experts and other brilliant members works tirelessly to make Steampunk Spotter a success. But we also take time to do great work in great places.

This year, we set our compass for the picturesque Karst region, where brainstorming sessions were fueled by local delicacies ;) Oh, and let’s not forget the unexpected discovery of hidden dance talents among our team members. ;)

We had such a blast that we now affectionately refer to these annual workshops as “Spotter retreats”. And judging by the photos, it’s not hard to see why.

New Year, New Adventures: What’s next?

To give you a sneak peek into Spotter’s roadmap, we’re excited to announce a host of new features and improvements that will elevate your automation experience. Here are a few highlights:

⚙️ Revamped Automation Landscape Insights: We’ll be expanding our comprehensive insights to provide a holistic view of your automation ecosystem, encompassing automation, security, reliability, and compliance. This single-pane-of-glass approach will empower you to make informed decisions that optimize your automation strategy.

⚙️ Fortifying Secure Automation: Our commitment to secure automation extends beyond playbooks to encompass the entire automation landscape. We’ll implement robust security mechanisms to safeguard your systems, including cloud infrastructure, network devices, and other managed environments.

⚙️ Technological Diversification: We’re expanding our reach beyond Ansible to encompass a broader spectrum of management and automation technologies. This expansion will ensure that our suite of reliability, security, and compliance solutions caters to your diverse IT landscape. As we know you’re using different automation tools, which ones would you like to see included in Spotter in addition to Ansible?

Let’s keep on spreading (automation) magic

It was a magical year, and we wish nothing less for the next one, for everyone. So, our new year’s wish for all of us is:

May your gears keep turning, your playbooks be error-free, and your year full of (automation) magic.

Happy 2024 from XLAB Steampunk!