Firefly: Reduce the risk of service failure and codify your cloud

As companies continue to rely more on cloud computing, it is important that the cloud platform is manageable and reliable. For companies that are looking for any aspect of computer service, cloud essentially helps store databases, software, intelligence and so much more. Having a strong cloud computing program is an integral part of businesses today. In order to save time and money, it is important to choose a company that turns cloud platforms into a smart, reliable and smooth platform.

Firefly is a company that eliminates manual processes and helps companies achieve higher productivity, with enhanced security. Their Cloud Asset Management platform provides an infrastructure that is well organized and easy to manage.

CIO Bulletin had the opportunity to sit down in an interview with CEO, Ido Neeman and talk about Firefly and its impact.

Q. What is Firefly’s story? What made you start Firefly?

Firefly was founded with the aim of solving cloud complexity. Together with my co founders, Eran Bibi, and Sefi Genis, we recognized the challenges faced by companies in effectively managing and controlling their cloud assets. We noticed that a significant pillar in managing IT infrastructure, IT Asset Management, is missing for the cloud. We built technology to leverage Infrastructure-as-Code for scalable, efficient Cloud Asset Management to increase DevOps velocity, enhance reliability, optimize costs, and reduce risks.

Q. What do you mean by “infrastructure-as-code”? How will this enable companies to better serve their customers?

“Infrastructure-as-code” (IaC) refers to the practice of defining and managing infrastructure resources using software that defines and commands cloud infrastructure. It allows companies to treat infrastructure in the same way they treat application code, applying version control, change approvals, and other software engineering best practices. Firefly’s Cloud Asset Management solution scans the user’s entire cloud footprint and detects which parts of it are properly controlled and Codified (meaning managed as code), vs unmanaged, misconfigured, or inefficient. When unmanaged resources are found, Firefly is able to automatically create the IaC coverage for it, saving significant engineering time, reducing friction, and preventing errors.

This approach enables companies to better serve their customers by bringing consistency, reliability, and governance to cloud operations. It streamlines DevOps, CloudOps, and Platform Engineering processes, improves efficiency, and reduces risks, ultimately leading to better customer service.

Q. What products does Firefly offer? Why is it important for companies to better manage their cloud assets?

Firefly offers a Cloud Asset Management solution that brings proven methods of IT management to the cloud, while incorporating new technologies to solve challenges unique to cloud infrastructure. The platform continuously scans your cloud to identify new, unused, and misconfigured assets. Deviations from the desired state (aka configuration Drift’) are identified, and remediation is provided. Asset history ensures that in the event of corruption, deletion, or ransom, cloud assets can be recovered to prior versions, even if the asset was deleted. Because Firefly requires read-only access to your cloud and to your IaC, it keeps the user in control over changes to their cloud environment.

The increasing complexity of cloud environments and their ephemeral nature make it difficult to know what assets you actually have and to assess their health status. Manual management of cloud infrastructure leads to inefficiencies, security vulnerabilities, and scaling difficulties. Firefly provides automation, governance, and visibility into cloud environments, so companies can gain a comprehensive view of their cloud footprint, identify and rectify misconfigurations, optimize costs, and enhance reliability - all with greater context for decision making.

Q. What benefits can companies enjoy by employing Firefly’s Cloud Asset Management solution?

First, they gain complete visibility and control over their cloud assets through a unified platform, ensuring accurate inventory management across multi-cloud providers, multiple accounts, Kubernetes, and even cloud configurations that accompany SaaS applications like DataDog, GitHub, and other critical tools.

Second, the platform automates cloud management processes, improving the efficiency of DevOps, SRE teams, and platform engineers for codifying infrastructure, enabling consistent deployment, and troubleshooting outages.

Third, Firefly’s platform helps optimize costs by identifying unused or underutilized resources, recommending better options, and alerting users to potential cost-saving opportunities.

Fourth, the platform enhances reliability by identifying and addressing misconfigurations and security vulnerabilities. It provides governance and ensures that infrastructure adheres to industry standards and best practices, reducing the risk of downtime and data breaches.

Lastly, if cloud assets are corrupted, accidentally deleted, or ransomed, they can be recovered, reducing service outages.

Q. You mentioned that IT Asset Management is missing from the cloud. Can you say more about that and Firefly’s role in solving that challenge?

In on-premise data centers, CMDB (Configuration Management Database) and ITAM (IT Asset Management) were key elements of managing your IT Service. By having one inventory of all of your servers, storage, endpoints and other assets, that included their configurations and change history, you could understand how a change would impact the overall infrastructure, identify when components required upgrade, and generally make better informed decisions over cost, risk, and reliability.

As cloud complexity grows and cloud infrastructure becomes more mission critical, having a consolidated inventory across cloud providers, multiple cloud accounts, and SaaS application environments become a key necessity. Many have tried using legacy CMDB tools only to find that the ephemeral nature of cloud assets does not align well with tools intended for less frequent change. Cloud infrastructure management must be real-time with continuous insight and accuracy. Firefly meets this need with a comprehensive Cloud Asset Management solution that works across cloud providers and with the most popular IaC frameworks.

Firefly’s holistic approach toward managing cloud infrastructure with IaC is helpful to both IaC novices and experts alike. By finding unmanaged resources and then automatically turning existing cloud infrastructure into code, it’s easy to get started quickly and achieve full IaC coverage. Customers love that they can redeploy development resources toward innovation instead of writing Terraform, Pulumi, or Helm.

Q. What are Firefly’s plans for the future?

Advanced features and integrations will continue, with even greater use of AI that benefits our customers and supports additional use-cases. We previously launched AIaC.dev, open source software that codifies additional IaC using AI, followed by PaCAI, an AI-driven custom policy generator within the Firefly solution. Firefly’s platform and AI are the perfect marriage that allows any cloud practitioner to act as a full stack cloud team to dramatically increase efficiency. To be sure that we fully leverage AI, we are incubating a culture that places a premium on all team members being AI literate and proficient.

A brief bio of Ido Neeman, CEO and Co-Founder of Firefly

Ido Neeman, CEO and Co-Founder of Firefly, brings over a decade of experience in the elite Israeli intelligence corps and leading the technology portfolio at a hedge fund. He previously served as CEO and Co-Founder of Nuweba, a fast and secure server-less platform. At Firefly, Ido focuses on solving cloud management complexity through infrastructure-as-code, driving the company’s vision of streamlining Cloud Asset Management and delivering exceptional customer experiences.