Connected Environment

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Discussion

A Connected Environment maintains direct electronic communication with one or more external systems, services, repositories, providers, or networks.

The connections support activities such as retrieving dependencies, accessing source repositories, authenticating with infrastructure providers, obtaining updates, publishing artifacts, or exchanging operational information.

A Connected Environment still applies security, access-control, monitoring, and governance controls to its external communications. Connectivity refers to the presence of direct communication paths, not unrestricted access.

In the Crucible operating model, a Connected Environment often performs source retrieval, image construction, dependency capture, compliance scanning, and transfer-bundle preparation before controlled transfer into a Disconnected Environment.

Definition

operating environment that maintains direct electronic communication with one or more external systems, services, repositories, providers, or networks

Source

Generalised from networking, cloud-computing, software-delivery, and operational-environment usage and specialized for the Crucible architecture and operational model.

Note

A Connected Environment may restrict communications by destination, protocol, identity, purpose, or policy. Such restrictions do not render the environment disconnected, as direct external communication remains available.

The term does not imply a connection to the public Internet. A private network connection to an external service or environment also establishes connectivity.

Example

A build environment connects to source repositories, package repositories, infrastructure providers, and compliance-content sources while preparing a hardened machine image and its transfer dependencies.

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