Ansible: Infrastructure Automation Ledger 2026 Scorecard

Part of the Infrastructure Automation Ledger (edition 2026-10-16). How the scores work: methodology.

Snapshot

Type: engine (open source; packaged commercially as Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform)
Owner: Red Hat, Inc. (IBM subsidiary) employs the core team; developed in the open with a community, no foundation
Licence: GPL-3.0-or-later; no licence change found; free with no limits
Latest release: ansible-core 2.21.5 (2026-10-05); community package 14.5.0 (2026-10-06); 2.22.0rc1 tagged 2026-10-13
Support lifecycle: Three ansible-core versions maintained at once, a new major about every six months in May and November, about 18 to 24 months from GA to end of life; no LTS upstream
Next milestone: ansible-core 2.22 GA in November 2026 (published schedule); control node Python 3.13 to 3.15, PowerShell 7 targets
Targets: Linux, Windows (SSH officially since 2.18) and network devices through connection plugins; cloud collections for AWS, Azure and Google; vSphere: vmware.vmware 2.12.0 (Red Hat certified, 2026-10-12) and community.vmware 7.0.0 (community, 2026-09-27); Proxmox VE: community.proxmox 2.1.0 (community team, 2026-10-06, created 2025-05-12); Nutanix: nutanix.ncp 2.6.0 (Nutanix, certified, 2026-09-23); Hyper-V: microsoft.hyperv 1.1.0 (certified, 2026-05-19, first release 2026-03-26); XCP-ng: no dedicated collection, only XenServer modules in community.general tested up to XCP-ng 8.0; KubeVirt: kubevirt.core 2.3.0 (kubevirt project, 2026-06-10)
Tier: Open-source engine
Archetype: Dependable engine on a published calendar
Evidence grade: B. Release dates, support windows and collection releases were read from docs.ansible.com, PyPI and GitHub release feeds. Ownership dates come from secondary sources, and the capability steps before 2023 are inferred from release dates because those release notes were not read.

Scope of the scores: ansible-core is scored together with the collections that reach its targets, because since 2.10 almost every module lives in a collection. Scheduling, a web UI, RBAC and AI belong to the products built on it and are scored under Ansible Automation Platform.

Scorecard

Dimension	Score	Direction
Capability today	58.6 / 100	higher is better
Momentum since end of 2022	+6.7 points (2015 to 2022: +10.1)	higher is better
Credibility	19.5 / 25	higher is better
Commercial risk	not scored (engine: nothing to buy)
Technical lock-in	4.5 / 25	lower is better
Integrator fit	11.5 / 20	higher is better
AI leverage	1.0 / 20	higher is better
Ledger Index	60.4 / 100	balanced weights; see the methodology

Capability by domain, 2015 to today

Scores 0 to 5 against fixed anchors; total is weighted to 100.

Domain (weight)	2015	2019	2022	Today
Provisioning breadth (15)	2	3	3.5	4
Configuration management depth (12)	3	3	3.5	4
State, planning and safety (12)	2	2	2	2
Language and authoring (10)	3	3	3.5	4
Orchestration and self-service (10)	1	1.5	1.5	2
Scale and control plane (8)	2	2	2	2
Security and compliance (10)	1.5	1.5	1.5	2.5
Bare metal and day-2 operations (8)	2.5	3	3	3
Ecosystem and integrations (8)	3.5	3.5	4.5	4.5
AI assistance (7)	0	0	0	0
Total / 100	41.8	46.6	51.9	58.6

Year by year: 2015: 41.8 · 2016: 44.3 · 2017: 44.3 · 2018: 44.3 · 2019: 46.6 · 2020: 51.1 · 2021: 51.9 · 2022: 51.9 · 2023: 53.9 · 2024: 55.1 · 2025: 57.1 · 2026: 58.6

What moved the score

Year	Domain	Change	Points	Trigger
2016	Orchestration and self-service	1 → 1.5	+1.0	2.0: blocks and strategy plugins
2016	Provisioning breadth	2 → 2.5	+1.5	2.0: general availability with a larger cloud and network module set
2019	Bare metal and day-2 operations	2.5 → 3	+0.8	2.9: Redfish BMC and reboot modules in core before the split
2019	Provisioning breadth	2.5 → 3	+1.5	2.9: cloud, vSphere, oVirt and network vendor modules in core before the collections split
2020	Configuration management depth	3 → 3.5	+1.2	2.10: Windows and network platform content maintained as collections
2020	Ecosystem and integrations	3.5 → 4	+0.8	2.10: collections distribution through Galaxy opens the content ecosystem
2020	Language and authoring	3 → 3.5	+1.0	2.10: namespaced, versioned collections on Galaxy
2020	Provisioning breadth	3 → 3.5	+1.5	2.10: collections model; vendors maintain their own content on Galaxy
2021	Ecosystem and integrations	4 → 4.5	+0.8	Community package 3.0 (2021-02-18): curated collection bundle on top of ansible-core
2023	Orchestration and self-service	1.5 → 2	+1.0	ansible-rulebook: event-driven runs reach GA with Automation Platform 2.4 (2023-06-27)
2023	Security and compliance	1.5 → 2	+1.0	2.16: conditionals with embedded templates on untrusted data fail as unsafe (CVE-2023-5764)
2024	Configuration management depth	3.5 → 4	+1.2	2.18: Windows hosts officially managed over the ssh connection plugin
2025	Language and authoring	3.5 → 4	+1.0	2.19: data tagging names file and line in errors; native Jinja mode only; language server in the VS Code extension
2025	Security and compliance	2 → 2.5	+1.0	2.19: template trust model inverted, only strings from trusted sources render as templates
2026	Provisioning breadth	3.5 → 4	+1.5	microsoft.hyperv 1.0.0 certified (2026-03-26); vmware.vmware certified releases; community.proxmox since 2025-05; still no XCP-ng collection

Direction, 2023 to 2026

Each release item carries one theme and one driver (V vision, C customer need, M market window, U upstream, P portfolio).

Date	Item	Theme	Driver
2023-06	ansible-rulebook: event-driven runs reach GA with Automation Platform 2.4	Orchestration	V
2023-11	2.16: hardened conditional templating after CVE-2023-5764	Security	C
2024-11	2.18: Windows hosts managed over SSH; control node needs Python 3.11 or newer	Configuration management	C
2025-05	community.proxmox collection published on Galaxy	Provisioning breadth	M
2025-07	2.19: data tagging, native Jinja mode only, stricter conditionals; GA in July instead of May	Language	C
2025-07	2.19: template trust model inverted	Security	C
2025-11	2.20: control node Python 3.12 or newer, Galaxy v2 API removed, deprecations scheduled for 2.24	Packaging	U
2026-03	microsoft.hyperv 1.0.0, Red Hat certified Hyper-V collection	Provisioning breadth	M
2026-05	2.21 on the published date; porting guide lists no notable engine changes	Packaging	U
2026-06	kubevirt.core 2.3.0 from the kubevirt project	Provisioning breadth	U
2026-09	community.vmware 7.0.0 requires vcf-sdk 9.0 or newer	Provisioning breadth	U
2026-09	nutanix.ncp 2.6.0; legacy modules to be deprecated in a Q4 2026 release	Provisioning breadth	C
2026-10	vmware.vmware 2.12.0, Red Hat certified vSphere collection	Provisioning breadth	P
2026-10	2.22.0rc1; GA scheduled for November 2026 with PowerShell 7 targets	Packaging	U

Centre of gravity: Provisioning breadth (6), Packaging (3), Security (2)
Blind spots (no items): State and planning, Scale, Bare metal, Ecosystem, AI, Licensing
Driver mix: Vision 7%, Customer need 36%, Market window 14%, Upstream 36%, Portfolio 7%
Idea-to-need index: 0.13 (0 = demand-pulled, 1 = thesis-pushed)

Credibility: 19.5 / 25

Criterion	Score	Basis
Cadence	4.5	Published May and November rhythm, kept for 2.20 (2025-11-03) and 2.21 (2026-05-18); 2.19 landed 2025-07-21
Roadmap transparency	4.5	Public per-release roadmap pages with dates, open tracker, porting guides; feature plans beyond deprecations are thin
Say-do	4	Dated releases held; deprecation promises for 2.23 and 2.24 still pending
Velocity	3.5	2.19 brought several substantive changes; 2.20 and 2.21 were maintenance and platform floors
Lifecycle stability	3	About 18 to 24 months per version, no LTS, Python floor rises each cycle, templating breaks in 2.19

Commercial risk: not scored

This is an engine: nobody sells it, so there are no commercial terms to score.

Technical lock-in: 4.5 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Formats	1	Open YAML and plain-text inventory, Ansible specific
Export path	2	No state to export; leaving means rewriting playbooks in another tool
Stack coupling	0.5	Agentless; needs Python on Linux targets and PowerShell 5.1 or later on Windows
Hardware / cloud coupling	0	Any host, fully offline
Skills and tooling coupling	1	Widely held skills; open tooling

Integrator fit: 11.5 / 20

Criterion	Score	Basis
Partner programme openness	3	No programme for the engine; anyone can build on it; certified content runs through Red Hat Partner Connect
Multi-tenancy and self-service	0.5	None in the engine
API and infrastructure-as-code	3.5	CLI, ansible-runner library and ansible-rulebook; no REST API of its own
Skills and certification	4.5	Exam-based Red Hat certification (EX294) and a very large talent pool

AI leverage: 1.0 / 20

How the product uses AI, scored per year like capability. Only GA counts.

Criterion	2019	2022	Today	Latest step
AI code and plan generation	0	0	0	2015: None
AI platform stack	0	0	0	2015: None
AI-assisted operations	0	0	0	2015: None
Agent openness	1	1	1	2015: CLI and the ansible-runner Python API; no REST API and no official MCP server for the engine

Year by year: 2015: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2020: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2026: 1

AI say-do, 2023 to 2026: 0 AI items announced; 0 GA, 0 still preview, 0 pending, 0 dropped. Red Hat's AI features (Lightspeed, the intelligent assistant, the MCP server) ship in Ansible Automation Platform and are counted there.

The engine has no AI feature of its own and no official agent interface. Agents can call it only through the command line or the runner library, which is why the AI score sits near zero here while the platform built on it scores.

Reading

Ansible is the most widely reached automation engine on this list, and the collections model means its breadth is now set by vendors and community teams as much as by Red Hat. The engine itself has changed slowly since 2020: the real movement is in collections and in the 2.19 templating rework. Its limits are structural: no state file, no drift detection, no control plane and no AI, so every one of those needs a product on top. The thing to check before you build on it is which collection covers your platform and who maintains it, because Proxmox VE and XCP-ng are community or nothing while vSphere, Nutanix and Hyper-V have certified content.

Open questions and items to re-score

Capability steps before 2023 (2.0, 2.9, 2.10) are dated from release pages; their feature content was not read from release notes.
Red Hat certification status of community.vmware, community.proxmox and kubevirt.core was not confirmed.
The reason for the 2.19 slip from May to July 2025 was not found.
Whether an official upstream MCP server exists was not searched exhaustively.
Ownership dates (Red Hat acquisition 2015-10, IBM closing 2019-07-09) come from Wikipedia.

	’16	’19	’20	’21	’23	’24	’25	’26
Provisioning breadth	1	1	1					1
Configuration management depth			2			1
State, planning and safety
Language and authoring			3				1
Orchestration and self-service	2				1
Scale and control plane
Security and compliance					2		2
Bare metal and day-2 operations		2
Ecosystem and integrations				1
AI assistance