Ansible is an open-source automation tool that simplifies the management of IT infrastructure. It allows users to automate tasks such as software provisioning, configuration management, and application deployment. By using a simple, human-readable language called YAML, Ansible makes it easy for both developers and system administrators to write automation scripts, known as playbooks. One of the key features of Ansible is its agentless architecture, meaning it does not require any special software to be installed on the managed systems. Instead, it uses standard protocols like SSH to communicate with servers. This makes Ansible a flexible and efficient choice for automating tasks across various environments, from cloud services to on-premises servers.