Sentinel is a fairly easy-to-understand language and framework for implementing Policy as Code in your organization, allowing for a large breadth of disciplines to be involved in the policymaking process.
In this introductory course, we’ll cover what Sentinel is through a few different pillars: The Why, The How, and The When of Sentinel.
If you have any feedback relating to this course, please let us know at support@cloudacademy.com.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, you will have learned:
- The Why
- Why was a Policy as Code framework like Sentinel developed? And what does it aim to solve for?
- The How
- How is Sentinel designed? What encompasses it as a language and framework?
- The When
- What are some ideal situations in which Sentinel should be implemented?
Intended Audience
- Managers
- DevOps Engineers
- Security Engineers
- Cloud Engineers
Prerequisites
To get the most out of this course, you should have:
- Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code
- Some programming experience
- Familiarity with organizational policies
Resources
Hashicorp.io - Sentinel Documentation
We've talked about the why, we've talked about the how, now let's talk about the when. When should Sentinel be employed? Well, starting with Defaults, the adoption is the best at beginning of any project or initiative. So for those working on a project or initiative, they have a sense of normalcy regarding what can or cannot be done.
Next, we have Nudge Theory, which is a way of nudging people in the right direction with policies during a project or initiative, which is less damaging to their workflows. That does it for an introduction to HashiCorp Sentinel. I do wanna pass you up with incredible useful resources, such as HashiCorp's IO Sentinel Documentation. Roger Berlind's incredibly useful common functions. The accompanied repo with this course that'll help you test policies, see the example policies that we use today and more. And finally Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein for the development on nudge and default choice for guiding people on the right direction, through behavioral insights.
We have plenty of content in our training library if this wasn't enough to satiate you. And as always, I'm Jonathan Lewey, and feel free to connect with me on one of these platforms or email Cloud Academy support@cloudacademy.com.
Jonathan Lewey is a DevOps Content Creator at Cloud Academy. With experience in the Networking and Operations of the traditional Information Technology industry, he has also lead the creation of applications for corporate integrations, and served as a Cloud Engineer supporting developer teams. Jonathan has a number of specialities including: a Cisco Certified Network Associate (R&S / Sec), an AWS Developer Associate, an AWS Solutions Architect, and is certified in Project Management.