Who this book is for

This book is for ideally anyone who understands that automation is key to repeatable, error free deployment and provisioning of infrastructure, applications, and networks. However, we really like to specify this.

If you are a system administrator who also takes care of the security of websites, servers, and networks, this book is for you.

Security consultants and analysts would gain by focusing on Chapter 3, Setting up a Hardened WordPress with Encrypted Automated Backups, to Chapter 10, Writing an Ansible Module for Security Testing. Even if some of the workloads don't apply to you, you will gain insights into how to use Ansible to provide security as a service to your teams. All the DevOps teams would love to work with someone who considers automation to be as important as the security part itself

Application developers who would like an easy way to deploy secure servers especially should look at Chapter 3, Setting up a Hardened WordPress with Encrypted Automated Backups, to Chapter 7, Security Hardening for Applications and Networks.

You will get the most out of this book if you are one of these:

• Someone who has used Ansible with basic commands before
• Someone who familiar with Linux and Windows operating systems
• Someone who has a basic idea about IP addressing, networking, and working with software installers