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Chef vs Nolio Release Automation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Chef
Ranking in Release Automation
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Build Automation (16th), Configuration Management (16th)
Nolio Release Automation
Ranking in Release Automation
12th
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2024, in the Release Automation category, the mindshare of Chef is 0.7%, down from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nolio Release Automation is 0.8%, down from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Release Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Arun S . - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 14, 2023
Useful for large infrastructure, reliable, but steep learning cureve
Chef can be scaled as needed. The Chef server itself can scale but it depends on the available resources. You can upgrade specific resources to meet the demand. Similarly, with clients, you can add as many clients as you need. Again, this depends on the server resources. If the server has enough resources, it can handle the number of servers required to manage the infrastructure. Chef can be scaled to meet the needs of the infrastructure being managed. The solution is good to manage multiple large infrastructures. We can have 10 to 10,000 users using this solution and it manages them well.
Akhilesh B N - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 10, 2023
Enables one-touch application deployment across various environments
Nolio is a very good tool. It's highly effective for deployment tasks and even supports one-touch deployment across various environments. When you design a process template, it can be reused across different scenarios. It's particularly valuable for database management and web applications. In comparison to Microsoft Kubernetes and other operations, database deployment can become complex, whereas Nolio is a very nice tool in the deployment arena. Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten because I don't know all the hidden features. Once I gain a comprehensive understanding of these features, I might be able to give a more definitive rating. Initially, when I started learning about Nolio, I found it somewhat challenging. However, over time, I discovered that it's a valuable and well-designed tool.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution is easy to use and learn, and it easily automates all the code and infrastructure."
"One thing that we've been able to do is a tiered permission model, allowing developers and their managers to perform their own operations in lower environments. This means a manager can go in and make changes to a whole environment, whereas a developer with less access may only be able to change individual components or be able to upgrade the version for software that they have control over."
"If you're handy enough with DSL and you can present your own front-facing interface to your developers, then you can actually have a lot more granular control with Chef in operations over what developers can perform and what they can't."
"It has been very easy to tie it into our build and deploy automation for production release work, etc. All the Chef pieces more or less run themselves."
"The most valuable feature is the language that it uses: Ruby."
"Manual deployments came to a halt completely. Server provisioning became lightning fast. Chef-docker enabled us to have fewer sets of source code for different purposes. Configuration management was a breeze and all the servers were as good as immutable servers."
"The most important thing is it can handle a 100,000 servers at the same time easily with no time constraints."
"You set it and forget it. You don't have to worry about the reliability or the deviations from any of the other configurations."
"The graphical view of when you're writing flow is the most valuable feature."
"One standout aspect is its architecture. We can configure multiple instances on a single server using different system names or usernames."
"The CA Application Insight feature is the solution's most valuable aspect."
 

Cons

"There appears to be no effort to fix the command line utility functionality, which is definitely broken, provides a false positive for a result when you perform the operation, and doesn't work."
"Since we are heading to IoT, this product should consider anything related to this."
"They could provide more features, so the recipes could be developed in a simpler and faster way. There is still a lot of room for improvement, providing better functionalities when creating recipes."
"If only Chef were easier to use and code, it would be used much more widely by the community."
"Third-party innovations need improvement, and I would like to see more integration with other platforms."
"I would like them to add database specific items, configuration items, and migration tools. Not necessarily on the builder side or the actual setup of the system, but more of a migration package for your different database sets, such as MongoDB, your extenders, etc. I want to see how that would function with a transition out to AWS for Aurora services and any of the RDBMS packages."
"There is a slight barrier to entry if you are used to using Ansible, since it is Ruby-based."
"I would like to see more security features for Chef and more automation."
"It could use better integration with development tools."
"In the next release, I would like to see more features to use active directory. And more rules to support more Python scripts and to work with Kubernetes and clouds, to have an easy solution for a lot of parameters."
"The configuration of the solution is a bit difficult to maneuver. They should work to make it easier."
"A concern with CA Release Automation is that Automic was acquired by CA recently. We're a bit concerned that CA strategy is going with Automic, that CA Release Automation is dead. They are not investing in it too much... They do say, that in the next two or three years we don't need to worry. They will still provide support for CA Release Automation. But we're not sure how CA Release Automation will evolve."
"When I started using Nolio around eight months ago, a challenge was the lack of relevant information and related support for learning."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is always a problem. It is high. There is room for improvement. I do like purchasing on the AWS Marketplace, but I would like the ability to negotiate and have some flexibility in the pricing on it."
"I wasn't involved in the purchasing, but I am pretty sure that we are happy with the current pricing and licensing since it never comes up."
"Pricing for Chef is high."
"We are using the free, open source version of the software, which we are happy with at this time."
"The price per node is a little weird. It doesn't scale along with your organization. If you're truly utilizing Chef to its fullest, then the number of nodes which are being utilized in any particular day might scale or change based on your Auto Scaling groups. How do you keep track of that or audit it? Then, how do you appropriately license it? It's difficult."
"We are able to save in development time, deployment time, and it makes it easier to manage the environments."
"Chef is priced based on the number of nodes."
"When we're rolling out a new server, we're not using the AWS Marketplace AMI, we're using our own AMI, but we are paying them a licensing fee."
"Nolio is a pretty much good tool, though its pricing is relatively high in the market. It's more expensive than other tools."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
59%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
4%
Hospitality Company
3%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Chef?
Chef is a great tool for an automation person who wants to do configuration management with infrastructure as a code.
What needs improvement with Chef?
Chef does not support the containerized things of Chef products. In the future, Chef could develop a docker container or docker images.
What do you like most about Nolio Release Automation?
One standout aspect is its architecture. We can configure multiple instances on a single server using different system names or usernames.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Nolio Release Automation?
Nolio is a pretty much good tool, though its pricing is relatively high in the market. It's more expensive than other tools. The pricing could be cheaper. In our organization, we've been using it f...
What needs improvement with Nolio Release Automation?
When I started using Nolio around eight months ago, a challenge was the lack of relevant information and related support for learning. There's also not many instructional materials and videos on pl...
 

Also Known As

No data available
CA Release Automation
 

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Facebook, Standard Bank, GE Capital, Nordstrom, Optum, Barclays, IGN, General Motors, Scholastic, Riot Games, NCR, Gap
CA Release Automation customers include Citrix, NIIT Technologies, ING Bank, Molina Healthcare, Swisscom, Bupa and Tesco. Read case studies from customers who are igniting and advancing their continuous delivery journey with CA Release Automation.
Find out what your peers are saying about Chef vs. Nolio Release Automation and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
813,418 professionals have used our research since 2012.