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# Eclipse Che for Infrastructure Automation

Centralized cloud development environments eliminate the friction of fragile local toolchains. Learn how Eclipse Che brings mature software engineering practices to infrastructure automation while safely introducing AI coding assistants.

- **Speakers:** [Niklas Werker](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@niklas-werker), [Norris](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@norris)
- **Event:** World Congress 2025
- **Published:** August 20, 2025
- **Duration:** 24:59
- **URL:** https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1611-eclipse-che-for-infrastructure-automation

## Summary

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) is often developed without standard software engineering practices—such as advanced language tooling, static analysis, and testing—leading to productivity friction and deployment issues. Addressing this capability gap requires moving away from fragile local toolchains and adopting centralized cloud development environments. By leveraging these governed solutions, platform engineering teams can easily bring mature software developer experiences to infrastructure automation, closing the historical gap between ops and dev practices.

Using tools like Eclipse Che and Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces, organizations can orchestrate "workspaces as code" declaratively via devfile specifications. This establishes a highly functional two-loop workflow: a high-velocity "inner loop" optimized for rapid ideation via locally simulated containers, and a heavily compliant "outer loop" enforcing organizational security checks. Integrated frameworks like Ansible, Ansible-lint, and Ansible Molecule simplify test-driven development (TDD) by dynamically spinning up product-like infrastructure to validate playbooks against exact target environments.

Ultimately, standardizing development environments accelerates developer onboarding, eliminates local cross-contamination errors, and secures execution perimeters by keeping production assets off individual laptops. Furthermore, this centralized workspace model is an ideal conduit for safely introducing AI coding assistants, such as Ansible Lightspeed. By embedding natural-language generation and code-explainability directly into securely managed browser IDEs, organizations can empower their teams to handle complex logic while strictly maintaining regulatory and compliance mandates.

**Keywords:** infrastructure as code workflows, eclipse che, cloud development environments, workspace as code, devfile specification, platform engineering, ansible automation workflows, test-driven infrastructure development, ansible molecule testing, ansible lightspeed integration, inner and outer loop development, red hat openshift dev spaces, dynamic test infrastructure, secure developer onboarding, language server protocol, ai coding assistants

## Chapters

1. **Adopting software development tools for infrastructure as code** (01:17) — Applying traditional software engineering practices like language tooling and testing to infrastructure automation.
1. **Shifting from local tools to remote development environments** (03:00) — Cloud development environments solve versioning conflicts and increase security by running automated configurations remotely.
1. **Structuring inner and outer development loops with Eclipse Che** (05:58) — Eclipse Che serves as the foundational dashboard to orchestrate local iteration and enterprise compliance checks.
1. **Comparing dev containers and dev files for workspace configuration** (09:21) — Dev files declare workspace dependencies and automated tasks tailored to run inside your development environment interface.
1. **Architecting cloud-native workspaces using Eclipse Che features** (10:40) — Eclipse Che provisions a fully featured Kubernetes namespace to support complex applications and test-driven workflows.
1. **Scaling repository configurations with inherited dev files** (13:39) — Centralized parent dev files streamline tooling setups while dynamically provisioning test infrastructure via containers.
1. **Bootstrapping an automated workspace from a custom dev file** (14:53) — Pre-configured IDE extensions and intelligent code highlighting reduce documentation lookups and eliminate boilerplate configuration friction.
1. **Running test-driven development infrastructure using Ansible Molecule** (18:00) — Dynamically provisioning and resetting simulated operating systems simplifies infrastructure automation validation without requiring virtual machines.
1. **Generating and explaining playbooks with AI coding assistants** (21:41) — Integrated AI models like Ansible Lightspeed generate boilerplate tasks and explain complex internal automation code.
1. **Closing the tooling gap between software and infrastructure teams** (23:47) — Standardized development environments unlock advanced testing features and foster collaboration across large infrastructure teams.

## Related Moments

- [Overcoming cloud development friction with automated code spaces](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/910-coffee-with-developers-kyle-daigle-coo-of-github) (from "Coffee With Developers - Kyle Daigle, COO of GitHub")
- [Introduction to cloud native infrastructure and platform engineering](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/885-platform-engineering-vs-devops-why-not-both) (from "Platform Engineering vs. DevOps Why not both?")
- [Automating cloud provisioning with infrastructure as code](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/887-building-applications-with-infrastructure-as-code) (from "Building Applications with Infrastructure as Code")
- [Overview of infrastructure as code tools](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/740-the-power-of-cloud-development-kit-cdk-how-to-get-the-most-out-of-it) (from "The power of Cloud Development Kit (CDK): How to get the most out of it")
- [Adopting AI tools for developer container workflows](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100183-from-build-to-breach-hacking-kubernetes-through-the-supply-chain) (from "From Build to Breach: Hacking Kubernetes Through the Supply Chain")
- [Empowering non-traditional developers through skill-based automated deployment](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1894-shipping-faster-with-less-render-on-cloud-hosting-ai-workloads-and-the-future-of-devops) (from "Shipping Faster with Less: Render on Cloud Hosting, AI Workloads, and the Future of DevOps")

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