Puppet Inc., a major provider of infrastructure automation software, today launched a new product called Project Nebula into public beta aimed at simplifying the deployment of cloud applications.

Turning a collection of code files into a working service is a complicated multistep process. Engineers must not only build the application itself, but also prepare the infrastructure on which it will run and set up supporting components such as encryption keys.

Putting all the puzzle pieces in place requires several different tools that must be kept perfectly synchronized with one another at all times. Normally, that task requires a big-time investment and a great deal of manual tinkering. Project Nebula automates it by applying a workflow-based approach to the problem.

The product provides a workflow builder that lets administrators define each step of the application deployment process, from the order at which the software components should load to how the underlying hardware needs to be configured. Users can provide these instructions in the form of YAML files. Then when it’s go time, Project Nebula syncs the instructions to the different tools a software team uses for application deployments to orchestrate the rollout.

The product supports more than 20 popular application deployment tools on launch, including Terraform, CloudFormation, Helm and Kuberentes’ built-in kubectl engine. It comes with a visual activity viewer that lets administrators centrally track application rollouts as they happen.

Beyond taking the hassle out of setting up deployment workflows, Puppet said Project Nebula can foster more collaboration among developers. It allows the software teams in a company to create their deployment workflows in one place and share them with one another, even if they use different tools. Project Nebula thus removes the need for each team to build everything from scratch for its specific toolchain.

Puppet sees Project Nebula being particularly useful for companies using software containers and serverless services in their projects. Those technologies have made certain aspects of application development easier but also add more moving pieces to the deployment process, which makes automation all the more valuable.

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