What is it?

Understanding a comprehensive system like Ops Catalog can be like the fable of the blind men and the elephant. Different people grasp different aspects, and while no single perspective is entirely wrong, it's the synthesis of these views that reveals the whole picture. This page explores common perceptions...

CMDB for Developers

It is a CMDB but for Developers. This highlights its role in providing a structured, queryable inventory of operational components, tailored to developer needs for understanding and interacting with the tech landscape.

Partial View: Registry for Microservices

While it can act as a registry for microservices by cataloging their metadata and endpoints, its scope is much broader, encompassing various types of resources, components, and their relationships.

Catalog API for Backstage

It serves as an excellent backend or catalog API for developer portals like Backstage, providing the structured data needed to populate such UIs.

Misconception: Place to Store Deployment Config

It's not primarily a system for storing raw deployment configurations (like K8s YAMLs or Helm charts). While it might link to such configs or catalog their existence, its focus is on metadata and relationships, not direct config management.

Partial View: Place to Lookup Ownership Data

Yes, it's a great place to look up ownership data for services, resources, and components. This is a key feature, but not its sole purpose.

Misconception: Creates Git Repositories

Ops Catalog itself does not typically create git repositories. It catalogs metadata about various entities, which might include information about git repositories, but it's not a Git repository management tool.

Misconception: Tool to Manage Database Schemas

While it might store metadata about databases (e.g., type, location, owner), it is not designed to manage or enforce database schemas directly.

Partial View: Helps Find Kubernetes Workloads

It can definitely help find and understand Kubernetes workloads by cataloging their metadata, relationships, and ownership. However, it's not limited to K8s and can catalog a wide variety of other components.

Partial View: Collects AWS Resources

It can collect and catalog AWS resources (or GCP, Azure, etc.), providing a unified view. But it's platform-agnostic and designed to handle resources from any environment.

Misconception: Can Provision Kafka Topics

While Ops Catalog can trigger automated workflows (e.g., via fulfillment engines) that could lead to provisioning Kafka topics, the catalog itself is not the provisioning engine. It holds the 'what' and 'why', and can initiate the 'how'.

Partial View: API Server for Listing Resources I Own

It does provide an API to list resources you own, which is a valuable feature for visibility and management. But it also serves broader organizational needs for understanding the entire tech ecosystem.

Aggregator to View All Resources of the Company

This is a strong understanding. Ops Catalog can aggregate information from various sources and discovery mechanisms to provide a comprehensive, company-wide view of technological assets and their relationships.