Choose the Right Chef
for Your IT Infrastructure
Compare the benefits of Enterprise vs Community Chef to make an informed decision for your IT infrastructure needs.
Enterprise and Community Chef Explained
Enterprise Chef is the commercial offering of the Progress® Chef® software suite. This version builds upon the core functionalities of open-source Chef, including advanced features, timely support and enhanced capabilities. It is designed to meet the needs of larger organizations and complex infrastructures.
Community Chef is the open-source, community version of the Chef software suite. The community edition of Chef is supported by active users on various platforms such as GitHub, Stack Overflow and other popular Chef community sites. However, a reasonably higher level of expertise is still needed to provision, install, configure and deploy a Chef server from scratch when using Community Chef.
Advantages of Enterprise Edition Over the Community Edition
Increased Security and Compliance
Enterprise Chef offers rapid incident response, faster patching and proactive threat measures. It also provides more secure, vetted distributions with supply chain verification. Additionally, it offers Chef Premium Content, compliance profiles and automated remediation to help achieve compliance for infrastructure management.
Public Company Know-How for Continued Compliance
As a publicly traded company, Progress understands the importance of managing our customer’s data and environment for risk and security. Enterprise Chef is reviewed regularly for its adherence to industry standards, such as SOC, PCI, DSS, ISO 90078 and more. Documents supporting these reviews are available in the Progress Security Center.
24/7 Support & SLA-based Incident Responses
All Enterprise Chef customers are entitled to support. With Enterprise Chef, customers have service level agreements (SLAs) tied to incident response and security fixes, which include identification, notification, mitigation and resolution. Customers can select their support tier based on their needs, wherein a premium tier offers 24/7 assistance.
Access to Chef Professional Services
Enterprise users who opt for our professional services receive solutions and services tailored to their unique needs. It could be a consultancy on project-based engagements or a managed services delivery model that offers a technical liaison who will care for your unique needs.
Faster Time to Value with a SaaS Solution
Chef SaaS is a cloud-based, completely managed solution for infrastructure, compliance and cloud security automation for your entire IT estate, which is only provided by part of enterprise Chef. You can offload the installation, setup and maintenance of Chef to Progress, and we will keep your environment updated to the latest version.
Access to New Features with Wide Platform and Integration Support
Enterprise Chef users receive timely communication regarding updates, releases and new features and also get access to test beta releases of upcoming products or features. Enterprise Chef supports a wide range of environments and platforms (25+) and provides third-party integrations with premium tools.
Enterprise Chef vs. Community Chef – A Comparison
| Capabilities | Enterprise Chef | Community Chef |
|---|---|---|
| Supply Chain Integrity of Distribution and Service Level Objectives (SLOs) | ● | ✖ |
| Public Company Standards for Managing Customer Environment Security Risks and Incidents | ● | ✖ |
| SLA-based Priority Incident Response and Security Fixes on CVEs (Identification, Notification, Mitigation and Resolution) | Available via different tiers of Service | ✖ |
| Data Integrity and Cyber Resilience | ● | ✖ |
| Cyber Insurance and Indemnification | ● | ✖ |
| Progress Security Operation Center (SOC) support | ● | ✖ |
| Access to Chef Premium Content | ● | ✖ |
| 24/7 support from Chef | ● | ✖ |
| Professional Services | Available via different tiers of service | ✖ |
| Priority Communications on Updates, Releases and New Features | Regular communications from all customer-facing teams | Communication with the community about new features and releases will not match the frequency for Enterprise Chef users |
| Access to Beta Releases | Prototype testing, feedback and driving product direction | ✖ |
| SaaS-based Solution | ● | ✖ |
| HA Deployment Option | Available with Chef Automate and Chef SaaS | ✖ |
| Dashboard with Insights | ● | ✖ |
| OS Support | Higher number of platforms and OS supported (fit for enterprises with strict guidelines on platforms) | Supports only eight platforms (Not meant for large enterprises) |
| First-Party Integration with Other Products from the Progress Portfolio | ● | ✖ |
| Premium Integrations (ServiceNow et al.) | ● | ✖ |
| Future Capabilities | Access and facility to upgrade to the Progress® Chef® 360™ platform for all users | Limited visibility |
| Migration | Dedicated support for all customers | A community user can also migrate to the Chef 360 platform later |
| Training and Certifications | Potential discounts | No discounts |
Which Version of Chef Is Right for You?
Chef—whether community or enterprise—is built on the core of open-source software. However, like many other open-source products, the community version has limitations regarding features, security and service.
If you are an established enterprise or a growing company, scale matters and technical debt is a very real concern. The ROI of using Enterprise Chef is the preparation it gives you for the present and future.
For instance, security incidents can significantly impact your organization’s reputation and finances. Enterprise Chef provides far better support in dealing with malicious attacks and inadvertent security slips than the community version. Advanced features and exceptional support provide an edge that the community version cannot give. Choose Enterprise Chef for better support, enhanced visibility and advanced features.
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Choosing the Right Chef for Your Infrastructure: Enterprise vs. Community Explained
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