Automation with intent Rewriting the rules of enterprise security

From firewalls to self-healing systems, automation is no longer just a tool, it's the new heartbeat of digital trust. This piece dives into how AI, Zero Trust, and open source are reshaping enterprise security with precision and purpose

- Harsh Sharma

For decades, enterprises have built digital fortresses around their data. Firewalls guarded the perimeter, security teams reviewed every change, and compliance audits served as the final checkpoint. That world is disappearing fast.

As infrastructure becomes programmable and cloud-native systems scale in real time, security must evolve too. The new perimeter is no longer physical; it is written in code.

Automation now sits at the center of this transformation. It governs how policies are applied, how threats are contained, and how trust is maintained across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The convergence of automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and security is quietly reshaping how organizations operate and how they protect themselves.

To understand this shift, we sat down with Sathish Balakrishnan, Vice President and General Manager of the Ansible Business Unit, Red Hat, to discuss how automation and Al are redefining enterprise security and what the future of trust looks like in an increasingly connected world.

From gatekeeping to governance

In the past, security often appeared at the end of the software life cycle. Developers wrote code, operations teams deployed it, and security specialists performed checks just before release. That sequence worked when systems changed slowly. It no longer fits a world where infrastructure is updated in seconds.

This has led to a new approach known as security as code. In this model, policies and compliance checks are built directly into automation frameworks. Security becomes part of the code itself rather than an external review.