Cloudaware workflows (flows) is a technology for automating processes based on changes detected in CMDB. Using flows, customers can quickly adopt automation in all domains of digital infrastructure operations at scale.
Architecture
The Flow Builder provides an easy-to-use point-and-click user interface to create automation flows.
Flows consist of entry criteria and actions. Entry criteria is a specific configuration state of an entity in CMDB. Action is the process an operator would like to initiate once entry criteria have been met.
Use Cases
Infrastructure operators leverage flows to address configuration changes, spending spikes, and security compliance violations. Here are sample use cases:
Asset Management
Problem: Expired certificate causes business disruption
Solution: Create a time-based flow that will notify you to update the certificate 30 days before expiration
Asset: ACM Certificate
Criteria: Expiration Date < 30 from Current Date
Action: Send an email and create a JIRA ticket
Cost Management
Problem: AWS Forecasted Spend exceeds the preset budget value
Solution: Deploy a flow to send an email and Slack notifications to cost center owner
Asset: AWS Account
Criteria: Forecasted EoM or EoY Spend > Budget
Action: Trigger Email and Webhook for Slack
Compliance
Problem: AWS S3 Bucket allows non-encrypted traffic
Solution: Create a flow that will perform an auto-remediation process if the bucket owner has not addressed the issue within 7 days
Asset: Compliance Policy Violation
Criteria: Compliance Policy Violation Age > 7 days
Action: Webhook to trigger AWS Lambda auto-remediation function
Incident Management
Problem: Publicly facing instance has critical vulnerabilities
Solution: Create a ticket for the SecOps engineer in charge
Asset: EC2 Instance
Criteria: Public IP Is Not Null AND Critical Vulnerabilities > 0
Action: Webhook to create ServiceNow or PagerDuty Incident
Advantages
No code: simple low-key UI to let you play around with no programming skills required
Time-conditioned actions: set up a sequence for flow actions according to your business logic
Multi-source triggers: trigger flows using data from supported integrations