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DevOps is a cultural and technical approach that combines strategies, practices, and tools to accelerate application and service development. It emerged with the rise of cloud platforms and the shift away from on-premises hosting. By bridging the gap between development and operations, DevOps fosters strong collaboration among development, QA, and operations teams, often extending to include security (DevSecOps).
The main pillar of DevOps is automation that goes through all of its practices. By introducing automation across all stages of the software lifecycle, from development to deployment and maintenance, DevOps minimizes human effort, reduces the likelihood of errors in the application code, and speeds up the delivery process. This approach helps companies meet business requirements more efficiently and stay competitive in the market.
DevOps as a Service is an outsourcing model that allows you to reap all the benefits of comprehensive DevOps without hiring an in-house team. We’ve covered this topic in detail in previous posts. In short, this means having access to specialized DevOps skills and consulting without expanding your technical staff or bearing additional costs for workspace and employee taxes.
Compared to the traditional in-house approach, DevOps as a Service often results in better motivation among the hired team, as they aim to deliver excellent results to secure future contracts and favorable recommendations.
The great advantage of this model is also its full-service aspect: the provider manages all infrastructure and software-related processes, from Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery to automated testing and infrastructure management. Let’s take a closer look at these elements.
DevOps as a Service integrates seamlessly into existing IT and development teams through close coordination and well-organized workflow. Highly result-oriented, DevOps as a Service teams prioritize customer needs and aim for efficient and transparent communication. By utilizing shared communication channels like task management systems and messaging platforms, they keep customers consistently informed about work progress.
Access to Top Talent: Finding skilled professionals locally can be both challenging and costly. By outsourcing, you overcome geographical limitations and gain access to a global talent pool. This allows you to select candidates with the most favorable skill sets and rates, ensuring a cost-effective solution.
Rapid Project Initiation: Training in-house specialists can be a longtime process, delaying your projects. Outsourcing provides you with fully-trained professionals who have the necessary skills and knowledge to start working on your projects immediately.
Pay-for-Performance Model: One of the key benefits of outsourcing is that you only pay for the work outlined in your agreement and completed within the specified terms. This approach eliminates the need for expenses related to staff and workplace maintenance, inevitable with in-house DevOps model.
Broad Expertise: An outsourced DevOps provider’s team typically includes seasoned experts with experience in a variety of projects. The collective knowledge and skills of the team enhance the company’s expertise. If a particular engineer lacks the required skills, they can be replaced with a more qualified team member.
Integration with existing processes: For outsourced employees to deliver their best results, they should be seamlessly integrated into the team. This integration goes beyond technical skills, such as working with the technology stack chosen by the in-house team; it also includes interpersonal skills. The inability to fit into well-knit customer teams and develop efficient working relationships could be a serious blocker to successful adoption of DevOps as a Service.
Security and Compliance: For certain industries that handle sensitive customer information, such as fintech and healthcare, adhering to stringent security rules and industry standards is crucial. Their main priority is ensuring data security both in transit and at rest. To achieve this, DevOps as a Service teams must prioritize compliance by implementing encryption, access controls, and audit trails throughout their processes. Automated testing should also incorporate compliance checks to ensure that the software meets industry-specific regulations and standards, such as those in healthcare.
DevOps as a Service is the ideal solution for companies that want to achieve highest results without hiring in-house teams. With a dedicated team of professionals, a flexible development approach, and effective communication, this approach helps bring products to market more quickly and efficiently, providing a clear competitive advantage.
If you’re considering integrating DevOps as a Service, look no further than SHALB. Our team thrives on new challenges and stays ahead of the ever-evolving DevOps landscape to deliver the best solutions. Contact us today to elevate your DevOps journey!
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]]>The post Override existing resources by helm appeared first on SHALB.
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While patching manually all the pre-Helm installed resources for one service could hardly be a problem, it changes dramatically when dealing with numerous services. In this article, I will demonstrate how to overcome this limitation without the need for redeploying services, thus avoiding any forced downtime.
Kubernetes administrators often encounter challenges when attempting to integrate non-Helm deployed resources into a new or existing Helm chart. When trying to redeploy such resources using Helm, they encounter an error message: “Error: rendered manifests contain a resource that already exists…“. This occurs because Helm is unable to rewrite objects for which it is not the owner.
One potential solution is to delete these resources and redeploy them with Helm. However, this approach leads to unavoidable production downtime and introduces potential risks. Yet, it is feasible to “deceive” Helm into recognizing existing resources as if they were deployed by Helm.
Helm retains information about its ownership in the state secret. To make Helm consider existing resources as if they were Helm-deployed, a workaround involves deploying the code to a temporary cluster, copying Helm’s state to the target cluster, and then syncing the resources.
As long as we don’t have information about the code in your target cluster, we will provide example code that you can deploy to your target cluster to test our solution:
export KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/target
echo \
'apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
name: test-deployment
namespace: default
spec:
replicas: 1
selector:
matchLabels:
app: test-deployment
template:
metadata:
labels:
app: test-deployment
spec:
containers:
- name: busybox
image: busybox:1.35.0
command: ["/bin/sh"]
args: ["-c", "sleep 999999"]
resources:
requests:
memory: "100Mi"
cpu: "10m"
limits:
memory: "100Mi"
cpu: "10m"' \
> test.yaml
kubectl -f test.yaml apply
1.Create a test Helm chart and add our code to it:
mkdir -p test/templates echo \ 'apiVersion: v1 name: test version: 0.0.1 description: Test code ' \ > test/Chart.yaml cp -a test.yaml test/templates/
2. Try to deploy the Helm chart to the target cluster – you should see the “resource already exists” error:
helm upgrade --install test ./test/ -n default
3. Get the target cluster version:
kubectl version | grep ^Server | grep --color GitVersion:
4. Run a temporary Kubernetes cluster by Minicube with the same or similar version:
minikube start -p aged --kubernetes-version=v1.25.3 export KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/config
5. Deploy the Helm chart to the temporary cluster:
helm upgrade --install test ./test/ -n default
6. Save the chart state to a file:
kubectl -n default get secret sh.helm.release.v1.test.v1 -o yaml > test_state.yaml
7. Deploy the state to the target cluster:
export KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/target kubectl -n default -f test_state.yaml apply
8. Deploy the chart to the target cluster – you should see no errors:
helm upgrade --install test ./test/ -n default
9. Finally, check the result with Helm annotations – you should see no differences:
kubectl -f test.yaml get -o yaml | grep helm
kubectl -f test.yaml diff
Now you are able to add any code to the test Helm chart and migrate any resources if you need to.
In this article I have demonstrated how to overwrite existing resources deployed by non-Helm without stopping production services – an easy and convenient workaround for Kubernetes administrators who might have faced the same problem.
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]]>The post Cloud Data Analytics Platform for Retailers appeared first on SHALB.
]]>Retail analytics used to depend primarily on local solutions that were constrained by storage and processing limitations, but the emergence of cloud technologies has now opened doors for retailers to fully leverage their data. Cloud data platforms provide a scalable and adaptable infrastructure, facilitating the smooth integration of various data sources and formats.
Cloud data platforms offer a crucial advantage: centralized data management. Retailers can gather data from various sources—such as sales transactions, customer interactions, and inventory levels—and consolidate them into one central repository. This method eradicates data silos and offers a comprehensive view of the entire business.
The retail landscape evolves rapidly, demanding real-time decision-making. Cloud data platforms simplify these processes, allowing retailers to monitor key performance indicators, track sales trends, and adapt to market shifts quickly. This adaptability is crucial in a fiercely competitive market where every detail is paramount.
Retail analytics deals with substantial volumes of data, posing both a challenge and an opportunity. Cloud data platforms are specifically designed to handle extensive datasets efficiently and excel in tasks like analyzing customer behavior, predicting demand, and refining supply chains. Cloud platforms offer the computational capacity necessary to process and extract insights from these extensive datasets.
Cloud data platforms provide robust backing for advanced analytics and machine learning algorithms. Retailers leverage predictive analytics to foresee consumer behavior, suggest personalized products, and fine-tune pricing strategies. Machine learning models can also discern patterns within data that might escape traditional analytic approaches, granting an extra edge in decision-making for a competitive advantage.
For many retailers, adapting to varying data loads is a significant concern because the influx of information keeps increasing. That’s where the flexibility of cloud data platforms really stands out. Instead of investing heavily in expanding local systems, businesses utilizing these platforms can easily adjust their data processing capabilities as required, paying solely for the resources they utilize. It’s about efficiency and cost-effectiveness hand in hand.
Keeping customer data safe is a top priority in retail, and that means meeting all security requirements. The big cloud data platforms go through serious certifications, creating a safe space to store and handle data. This lets retailers dive into their data for insights without worrying about security.
Several major retailers have adopted cloud platforms for their data operations, leading to transformative outcomes. For instance, Amazon implemented advanced analytics to personalize customer recommendations, resulting in increased sales and positive customer feedback. Similarly, Walmart utilizes real-time analytics to optimize inventory levels, effectively reducing instances of shortages and excess stock.
Leveraging cloud platforms for analytics enables retailers to base decisions on extensive data volumes, enhancing operations and elevating the overall customer experience. SHALB’s team is ready to share its expertise in cloud computing, helping retailers to propel their businesses into a new era of innovation and competitiveness.
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]]>The post Managing WordPress on Kubernetes: Updates, Scaling, and Maintenance appeared first on SHALB.
]]>For managing WordPress on Kubernetes, containerization is key. It’s all about bundling WordPress and its dependencies into containers for a consistent setup every time. Using software like Docker, a containerization solution, lets you put your application and its needs into one neat package, making it super easy to deploy across different setups.
When working in a Kubernetes environment, having version control for WordPress core and plugins is crucial. Git, for example, is a version control system that can do the trick, helping track changes, enable team collaboration, and even make rolling back updates a breeze if needed. Opting for version control minimizes compatibility risks and keeps your WordPress website’s environment stable.
To deploy WordPress on Kubernetes, consider using Helm, a Kubernetes package manager that simplifies application deployment and management. You can generate Helm Charts for your WordPress setup, covering configurations, services, and dependencies. This setup enables:
Kubernetes WordPress hosting will give you scalable options, so it’s key to grasp the variance between horizontal and vertical scaling. Horizontal scaling means that you add more application instances to share the load, while vertical scaling involves beefing up resources for a single instance. Picking the right scaling strategy hinges on your website’s unique requirements, guaranteeing top-notch performance across various workloads.
In a K8s environment, guaranteeing high availability requires setting up load balancing. Distribute incoming traffic among multiple instances of your WordPress application to prevent bottlenecks and enhance reliability. Kubernetes comes with built-in load-balancing features and incorporating these tools into your website’s deployment process will ensure a reliable and seamless user experience.
WordPress heavily depends on persistent storage for various data, like multimedia, plugins, and themes. Kubernetes offers persistent volumes (PV) and persistent volume claims (PVC), specifically designed for managing storage in containers. Leveraging these features is advisable in order to maintain data consistency and enable seamless scaling without the worry of losing crucial information.
Consistent maintenance is vital for a well-functioning WordPress website. To achieve great service, it’s crucial to set up robust monitoring and logging solutions throughout your Kubernetes cluster. This status setup offers valuable visibility into performance, resource utilization, and potential issues. Tools such as Prometheus and Grafana prove highly effective in monitoring metrics and displaying trends site-wide. Taking a proactive approach to Kubernetes cluster management enables problem resolution before it affects the user experience.
No matter how well you handle your Kubernetes deployment, having a robust backup and disaster recovery plan is crucial. Regularly backing up your WordPress database, content, and configurations is a must. Furthermore, automating this process will ensure reliability. Implementing backup solutions based on snapshots guarantees quick recovery from unexpected failures, keeping your business processes stable.
Effectively handling and deploying WordPress on Kubernetes requires you to create a strategic approach involving containerization, version control, automated updates, scalability, high availability, persistent storage, monitoring, and disaster recovery planning.
SHALB, the DevOps development company, is ready to help with the implementation of a Kubernetes cluster for your project. Our team embraces outstanding DevOps practices and we guarantee the reliability and performance of your WordPress website.
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]]>The post DevSecOps: how to integrate security into the DevOps workflow, including code analysis, vulnerability scanning, and security testing appeared first on SHALB.
]]>DevSecOps methodology is becoming increasingly popular as an approach to software development. Its main task is to ensure maximum security of software production, in addition to uniting development and operation teams, and automating the maximum number of processes.
Traditionally, the entire application development cycle in DevOps follows the waterfall model: processes move linearly in one direction like water falling from one rock ledge to another. Each ledge is a separate completed stage and the product is refined, tested, and approved at each one. Creating code is like a computer game, in which after completing one level, our hero (the development team) moves on to the next one. But if errors are detected in the software product, the hero does not pass the level and instead has to go back to the previous one to fix them. This approach to development takes too much time and in today’s rapidly changing and highly competitive market, is a model that is no longer effective.
Modern programs, tools, and methodologies can significantly speed up development while increasing software reliability. However, code bases are subject to numerous threats and if security is not taken care of from the beginning, the manufacturer risks being left with nothing even at the final stage when the product is fully ready. These are the main risks that a vendor who fails to include security in the development process is exposed to:
These problems can be avoided by using the DevSecOps methodology.
Now we need to answer the question: what is DevSecOps and give a DevSecOps definition? The essence of this approach is reflected in its name, taken from development+security+operations. It is a software development method that combines the principles of DevOps, security at all stages of product development, and assumes maximum automation of processes. Essentially, DevSecOps is integrating security into DevOps. The main idea of this approach is that security must be thought about before the application is created and must be ensured at every step.
DevSecOps allows to promptly detect threats and eliminate them, and also to prevent possible incidents. Another important objective of this method is to ensure that the software is compliant with current industry requirements and regulations.
Most traditional testing tools and vulnerability scanners are not suitable for DevSecOps purposes because they are difficult to automate. Therefore, this methodology utilizes special security tools. Here are some of them:
Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools that allow you to detect vulnerabilities in the source code of the program itself. Static analysis is used to detect problem areas of existing code and quickly fix errors. This group of tools is easy to automate and incorporate into the development process.
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) tools create hacker scenarios and test a program’s resilience to external threats. They make it possible to detect application vulnerabilities while the application is running, such as misconfigurations and inadequate security measures.
In addition to these two large groups, DevSecOps uses tools for:
However, do not indiscriminately apply all tools to a project as each product is unique and the vendor needs to select the tools that best fit their goals.
Security in software development is achieved through various processes that are integrated into all phases of the development lifecycle. Here are the key DevSecOps methodologies:
Code analysis. Finding potentially vulnerable places in the source code plays an important role in security. Certain parts of the code may be more vulnerable than others, while there may also be various errors or deviations from coding standards in the code base. Such defects can be detected in the early stages of the development cycle using Static Application Security Testing (SAST) tools.
Change management. For effective software protection, changes to the software system must be constantly monitored: planned, coordinated, and controlled. Particular attention should be paid to processes that can affect security — code modifications, infrastructure upgrades or configuration changes.
Compliance management. Software must comply with current legal and industry regulations and standards. Only then can it be considered a quality product. To ensure compliance with the requirements, experts audit the software and check the data against the existing norms. The results of such analysis are documented.
Threat modeling. Systematic analysis of system architecture allows for predicting possible security threats and preventing them. Experts identify potential vulnerabilities which the manufacturer will pay special attention to, allowing them to significantly reduce possible security risks and protect the system from the most likely attacks.
Security training. Security can only be ensured if DevSecOps principles are adhered to by all team members. Therefore, it is important to train all personnel on current secure coding methods, how to prevent possible threats, and familiarize them with modern security standards.
Incident response and recovery. Incidents are a natural occurrence and program development can hardly do without them. Don’t be afraid of them, instead, prepare your team for possible disruptions in advance. Develop an incident response plan and explain to each specialist the algorithm of action in an unforeseen situation. Include the stages of incident detection, analysis, containment, remediation, and recovery. This will help the team be clear about what needs to be done and to react quickly to an emergency.
Vulnerability management. This process is aimed at finding vulnerabilities in the system. Usually, development and operations teams are actively involved as effective vulnerability detection, assessment, and remediation requires close communication between them. The use of automated tools speeds up the process and reduces the possibility of human error.
Secure configuration management. One of the important requirements for software is its compliance with industry best practices. This requires securely configuring application and infrastructure components and keeping track of configuration updates.
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD). DevSecOps methodologies focus on ensuring security from the earliest stages of development and integrating security processes into the build and deployment processes. This approach minimizes security threats to the system as much as possible so that by the time of deployment the manufacturer can be confident in the quality of the finished product.
Continuous monitoring. The goal of this component of DevSecOps is to identify anomalies, security incidents, and possible vulnerabilities. To ensure continuous monitoring, it is necessary to regularly monitor and analyze security events, application behavior, check system performance, and monitor user actions in real time. All these measures improve system security and reduce risks.
Even if you’ve learned the tools and processes of DevSecOps, to integrate this approach successfully and effectively, you’ll need to look at the overall program creation process, evaluate its unique features, and choose the methods that will get you closest to your project’s goals. We recommend paying attention to the following tips:
Make safety culture a priority. Explain the importance of safety to everyone involved in the project and instruct them. Take personal control of safety or assign it to one responsible person.
Simulate threats. This will help you anticipate possible threats, prioritize them, and think through the algorithm of actions in case of incidents.
Make it a rule to test security regularly. This way you can identify security threats promptly and eliminate them immediately.
Implement automation. Try to automate as many processes as possible to reduce the risk of errors and speed up development.
Encourage communication and teamwork between different teams. This will make the development and safety process more efficient at every stage.
Keep up to date with new developments in the security industry. Don’t be afraid to try new tools: they can improve workflow efficiency and allow you to create a better and more reliable product.
If you are not sure that you will be able to comprehensively assess all aspects of security, we recommend contacting experienced professionals at a DevOps services company: experts will help you develop a detailed step-by-step DevSecOps integration plan or offer professional support for your project — DevOps as a service.
Implementing DevSecOps provides the following benefits to manufacturers:
Risk mitigation in the early stages of development. By taking care of security from the very beginning, you significantly reduce the number of possible incidents and solve problems at an early stage, spending less time and resources.
Prevention of possible incidents. DevSecOps is focused not only on solving existing problems but also on identifying possible dangers. This allows you to minimize the number of incidents.ё
Fast problem resolution. DevSecOps automation and processes are focused on continuous safety monitoring and control. The manufacturer learns about emerging problems immediately and can promptly eliminate them.
Product compliance with industry regulations. One of the ideas behind the DevSecOps approach is to adhere to current regulatory requirements from the early stages of software development. Compliance with these rules and standards protects organizations from legal and financial risks.
Improved communication within the team. DevSecOps requires close interaction of all specialists; training them in security methods and the personal participation of each team member in the process. All these measures bring specialists from different departments closer together, improve communication within the team, and allow everyone to be a professional not only in their field but also to better understand global project processes.
High product quality and stable application performance. Identifying vulnerabilities and risks at early stages helps to avoid a significant number of factors that reduce software quality.
Customer trust and satisfaction. Reliable operation of the application and quick resolution of problems work to strengthen the vendor’s reputation and generate customer trust.
Ability to avoid unnecessary costs. DevSecOps allows you to identify and fix problems at early stages, so in the long term, the risks of incidents are significantly reduced. As a result, manufacturers do not have to spend significant sums on system recovery, incur losses due to downtime, or risk their reputation.
DevSecOps is a modern software development culture that helps organizations discover and address security vulnerabilities early in the software development process. This methodology prioritizes DevOps principles, security, automation, and team collaboration. DevSecOps integration helps reduce product development time, avoid multiple security risks and threats, and ensures reliable application performance. Ultimately, it creates a quality competitive product that is marketable and meets the needs of end users.
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]]>The post Kubernetes Cluster Backup and Disaster Recovery Strategies appeared first on SHALB.
]]>One of the most important aspects involved in software development is backup and disaster recovery capabilities. It minimizes the risk of data loss and reduces system downtime in case of malfunctions. We will discuss this in detail.
Data is the foundation of all modern applications. In a Kubernetes cluster, data could include:
Any loss of this data can lead to downtime, data corruption and potentially disastrous consequences for the entire system, and as a result, for the business.
The impact of system downtime can be catastrophic for any company and when a Kubernetes cluster encounters a disaster, quick recovery is of utmost importance. The cause of the malfunction will usually be either a deliberate malware attack or an unexpected network outage. Running properly implemented recovery processes to backup a Kubernetes cluster significantly reduces system downtime and associated losses.
Many industries have adopted strict regulatory requirements for data protection and disaster recovery; applications that do not comply with such requirements may be subject to serious penalties. To prevent that from happening, it is recommended to use backup and recovery according to Kubernetes standards.
Various techniques can be employed for Kubernetes cluster recovery. Each one has its own advantages that we will look at here.
Etcd is a distributed store for all cluster data, including configuration and state information. Etcd backing up is crucial for disaster recovery. Etcd backups can be done manually or by using automated tools such as etcdctl. These backups should be done regularly and stored in a secure location outside the cluster.
It is important to back up applications and their data. For this purpose, volume snapshots are used. You can also use a backup mechanism provided by third-party storage solutions, which could be databases, configuration files, or any other stateful components.
Kubernetes cluster configurations should be version controlled and backed up on a regular basis. Such configurations include manifests and custom resource definitions (CRDs). In this case, GitOps practices or Git version control systems can be useful.
Implementing reliable backup strategies to manage Kubernetes cluster is only half the battle. In case of a malfunction or disaster, you have to quickly and efficiently restore the system. This also requires a careful plan relating to your recovery strategies.
To minimize the consequences of a failure, you can use the implementation of high availability in a Kubernetes cluster. For this purpose, K8s’ built-in features and external solutions can be used. They help to create highly available worker node and management plane components.
It is important to test disaster recovery processes regularly. Being active in this area is key and you should test not only the recovery of backups, but also the ability to restore the entire cluster from scratch. For this purpose, automated testing tools can be used.
If Kubernetes is used in a cloud environment, you can leverage the disaster recovery tools offered by the service provider. Google Cloud, Azure, and AWS offer effective recovery features.
To restore mission-critical applications, it is recommended to consider multi-cluster deployments. Such deployments allow you to distribute the application across multiple regions and clusters – an approach that will minimize the risk of a single point of failure and help to streamline the disaster recovery process.
A carefully planned backup and disaster recovery strategy reduces the risks associated with cluster failures and data loss. SHALB follows the industry’s best practices to configure K8s. Using the latest tools and techniques, our team helps companies to ensure the resilience and availability of their Kubernetes clusters and protect their applications from unforeseen events.
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]]>The post Agile Development and Improvement of DevOps Principles in Your Company appeared first on SHALB.
]]>Agile development is a software development methodology based on step-by-step and gradual progress. This approach also involves close collaboration between teams involved in different development processes. Focus is also given to customer feedback, adaptability, and MVP (minimum viable product) presentation. Agile development methods such as Scrum, Lean, and Kanban are widely practiced due to their efficiency and capacity to improve product quality.
DevOps (development & operations) is a set of practices aimed at addressing the disconnect between development and operations teams. These practices foster a culture of collaboration, automation, continuous integration, and delivery (CI/CD). DevOps principles aim to eliminate bottlenecks in the development pipeline, reduce manual intervention, and accelerate the delivery of software updates and features.
CI/CD pipelines. Agile development promotes small, gradual changes to software. This harmonizes with DevOps principles focused on automation and rapid code deployment. Using Agile practices, development teams create continuous delivery pipelines. This ensures that every code change is carefully tested and then smoothly deployed into production.
Agile development teams are formed of professionals with different skill sets. For example, they may include not only developers, but also testers and designers working together to achieve a common goal. DevOps uses a similar cross-functional approach that involves developers and operation professionals working closely together. This collaboration ensures that software is not only developed quickly, but also works consistently once deployed to production.
Customers. Emphasizing the importance of feedback and adaptability, Agile development means that the customer is at the center of this process. DevOps helps extend this focus by ensuring that customer feedback is considered in operational improvements. By combining Agile and DevOps, organizations quickly respond to customer requests and deliver updates that meet their expectations.
Having understood how Agile and DevOps are related, you can begin to effectively implement Agile methodology and practices into your organization’s workflow. To do this, you need to:
Assess the current state. You should start the implementation by assessing the existing development processes, team structure, and internal collaborative culture. You also need to identify areas that need improvement and how Agile can address these issues.
Select an Agile Framework. Your Agile framework should match the goals and culture of the organization. Popular frameworks include Scrum, Kanban and Lean. It is important that people understand the chosen framework and its principles.
Initiate training. To ensure successful Agile implementation, companies should consider investing in Agile training for their teams. This can include courses such as Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) or Certified Agile Practitioner (CAP). Training is key to keeping everyone on the same page and being able to effectively implement Agile practices.
Organize cross-functional teams. When implementing Agile, you need to reorganize teams into cross-functional units. They should consist of developers, testers, and other specialists required for the project. Self-organization is key and such units should be able to make their own decisions about how they work.
Keep a log. It is recommended to create a log of uncompleted product work. In this log, you need to prioritize the work determined on the basis of customer needs and business values. Such a backlog serves as the main source of work for the Agile team. The backlog will ensure that team members are always focused on the most important tasks.
Plan sprints. One important element is to hold regular sprint planning meetings to determine the scope of work for each iteration. All team members should participate in these meetings. As a result of the meeting and shared information, there should be a clear understanding of what will be achieved during the sprint.
Assess the outcome. At the end of each sprint, you should summarize the outcome and give its overview. This will allow you to present the completed work and gather feedback from stakeholders. It is also recommended to conduct a retrospection: individual teams will be able to reflect on what went well and what can be improved.
Improve. It is important to encourage a culture of continuous improvement. This approach will motivate teams to regularly improve their work processes and look for ways to increase productivity and product quality.
Agile development practices provide a solid foundation for implementing DevOps principles in a company. To successfully implement Agile, you need to assess the current state of your organization, choose the right structure, and make an investment in training your teams.
As an experienced DevOps development company, SHALB knows how to successfully implement Agile in an organization. By following best DevOps development practices and Agile principles, our DevOps support services help businesses accomplish the agile development process, accelerate software delivery, and improve overall product and service quality.
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]]>The post Site Reliability Engineering (SRE): Best practices appeared first on SHALB.
]]>The stable functioning of large-scale projects or websites depends on many factors and coordinated teamwork. By default, people expect a site to be available at all times, as disruptions can seriously damage a company’s reputation.
Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) is a set of tools and practices that can be used to minimize disruptions and ensure rapid recovery, stability, and smooth operation of a complex system when scaling a project. All this ensures good productivity and, consequently, satisfied customers.
The concept of SRE was developed by Google in 2003 to manage large, complex platforms and search systems. In this article, you will learn what is site reliability engineering and explore the most effective practices of this method, which will help you ensure reliable site performance and recover quickly after incidents.
SRE is a set of practices, principles, and methods aimed at creating reliable, flexible, and easily scalable software systems. Below, we cover the key techniques and tools of this culture.
One of the main goals of SRE is to connect teams and make them work together. It is important for the manager to keep in mind that every innovation or decision will influence everyone involved in the business processes. Therefore, when implementing new methods, connecting new functions, or updating software, consider in advance how it will affect the entire team’s work and discuss your ideas with the specialists involved in these processes. This will help to avoid undesirable outcomes and maximally prepare employees for the new conditions.
Usually, developing or updating software means making many backups, each of which must be tested. In large-scale projects, this process takes a lot of time if testing is done manually. Such organization of the process reduces the efficiency and speed of development. That is why one of the SRE principles is maximum automation. It allows you to transfer routine and repetitive tasks to machines and programs. This will enable you to:
Automation will also help you optimize deployment and make it continuous. The fact is that every resource has a certain error budget — the time during which the resource can be idle without being penalized. If the company has exhausted that time, SRE engineers must pause the deployment. Automation (by speeding up development and reducing labor costs) allows you to launch the deployment again and make the system more stable.
If you create something new (as you know, software is always a unique product), incidents and bugs are inevitable. Don’t be frustrated when they occur, but instead benefit from them. That’s where retrospective analysis can help.
SRE engineers study the history of bugs, identifying the causes in each specific incident. This helps you understand what led to the failure and correct the problem so you don’t repeat the same mistake in the future. This is how you address weaknesses in the system and make it more reliable.
Looking more broadly, retrospective analysis is a great tool for timely recognition of what’s wrong with your strategy. Once you realize this, you will save time and resources by adjusting your path and aligning it more precisely with the project goals.
The goal of any project is to create a product that the end user will like, which signifies success. Therefore, when developing software, it is important to understand how it will work on the user side. Will the program be user-friendly and intuitive? And will users like the interface? Or will they have trouble accessing certain functions?
Look at your product through the eyes of the user and consider aspects that may be important to them. If possible, obtain feedback from end users, as this will help you understand how the product can be improved.
SRE culture relies solely on objective data and specific metrics. When planning business processes and implementing new tools, you are essentially experimenting, as you don’t know in advance how it will work in your project. SRE collects significant amounts of various data, which can be analyzed to answer the following questions:
SRE engineers analyze the state of the system and ensure its reliability. They know the system peculiarities well and can predict which tools will handle your project’s tasks and increase its efficiency over time.
Encourage specialists to show initiative: let them know you are interested in their opinion. Some tools may cost the company more at the initial stage, but they may bring significant benefits in the long run. Ask engineers to inform you about such opportunities: let them argue their proposal and present you with all its potential benefits.
Try not to stop immediately: be forward-thinking and plan with a long-term perspective in mind. In addition to the immediate benefits to the project, this approach will give you more trust and respect from your colleagues.
To understand that the system is working effectively and clients are getting the right level of service, you need to have clear and precise criteria for these concepts. Otherwise, you cannot correctly assess the system’s performance.
Such criteria are provided by SLO — an agreement on specific indicators, which allows all participants of the production process to equally understand its goals, system efficiency criteria, and quality of service.
SLO goals should be:
With SLO, a manufacturer can continually improve service quality. This practice provides teams with comprehensive data to understand if the company is getting closer to business goals or if the desired progress is not being made. Such information makes it possible to keep a constant finger on the pulse, allowing for timely implementation of any necessary changes in business processes and adjusting them according to the overall objectives of the strategy.
SRE tools and techniques are not one static set that will remain the same from the beginning to the end of your project. Firstly, technology is constantly developing, with new, more effective technologies replacing the ones you are already familiar with. Secondly, the tasks and goals of your project may change, which could require different tools and skills of SRE specialists.
Therefore, the manager must ensure in advance that employees are ready to receive new knowledge and learn. Encourage the specialists to improve their skills: it will benefit both them and your project.
This is the process of constant observation of a system, program, or application. Monitoring data allows you to identify incorrect configurations and other potential problems of each component individually and during their interaction. In this way, you can improve the reliability and efficiency of the system without waiting for problems to manifest, when solving them will require more time and investment.
To ensure effective monitoring, we recommend using the following strategy when considering SRE monitoring tools:
Choose metrics. Determine which metrics you will track to assess the efficiency of the system. For example, these could be response times, error rates, and throughput.
Decide on monitoring tools. We recommend paying attention to the availability and usefulness of the tools, their ability to interact with others, and their ability to be scaled with your project.
Instrument the system. Once you have chosen the right tools for your project, you need to customize the system to interact with them easily; in other words, add code to the system to perform monitoring. This process is called instrumentation.
Visualize the indicators: it is important to design the monitoring results in a way that is clear, user-friendly, and easy to work with.
Use distributed tracing. This method allows you to collect data from all logs and metrics from different services in a single document. This way, you can get an overview of how requests are being executed and detect weaknesses in the system.
Set up alerts: the system will notify you of any current serious problems. This will allow you to take appropriate actions and maintain system stability promptly.
Use end-to-end monitoring: this method allows you to check how well the system works from the end user’s point of view. If you want people to use your product, you must ensure they are comfortable interacting with it. Two methods will help you with this:
If you aren’t currently able to train someone from your team in SRE techniques, you can use the services of an experienced site reliability engineer. DevOps as a service allows you to save time and, with the help of qualified experts, quickly develop a personalized strategy for your project, identify its strengths and weaknesses, determine the most appropriate tools and techniques for it, and increase its efficiency.
Usually, development and operation teams work almost independently, each solving their own tasks. This slows down and complicates business processes, and because of this, the software does not work at its full capacity. Practice SRE aims to maximize team unity, enhance cooperation, and ensure reliable system operation. Systematic implementation of SRE methods makes the system productive, ensuring its fast operation and recovery after incidents in the shortest possible time. Analyzing errors helps to avoid their recurrence in the future and significantly enhances the project’s capabilities. To start using SRE practices in a project, you can train your own employees or contact a company specializing in such services.
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]]>One of the key approaches to mastering AWS cost optimization lies in the efficient use of resources. This involves analyzing application workloads and selecting relevant instance types. Applying instances that are too big can cause inefficient resource utilization and increasing costs. To identify idle or underutilized resources, you should use tools such as AWS Trusted Advisor and AWS Cost Explorer – they will allow you to optimize system resources appropriately.
Autoscaling is a useful and effective feature that allows an application to automatically adapt to traffic volume. By setting up dynamic scaling, you can ensure that the right amount of resources are available during periods of peak activity. This will avoid allocating excess resources during low load periods and prevent unnecessary costs without losing high performance.
Unlike on-demand instances, spot instances provide an opportunity to access AWS backup capacity at a significantly lower cost. Although they are suitable for fault-tolerant workloads, keep in mind that these instances can be shut down if working capacity is needed for other workloads. Balancing spot instances with other types in a multi-instance strategy can help maintain application availability and at the same time reduce AWS costs.
Data storage costs can rise quickly, although Amazon Web Services (AWS) does offer different levels of storage for different utilization scenarios. For example, frequently used data is better accessed through Standard or Intelligent-Tiering storage tiers, but the rates for its use are high. It is wise to move information that is accessed rarely to Glacier storage for long-term preservation. The fees for using this type of storage are lower.
By setting up data lifecycle policies, you can provide automatic switching between more cost-effective storage tiers, according to how often it is accessed.
Actively monitoring and analyzing utilization patterns of AWS resources plays a key role in any AWS cost savings plan. With the AWS CloudWatch service, you can gain valuable insights about resource utilization that helps identify trends and anomalies. Configured alerts and automated responses will allow you to react promptly to unexpected spikes in utilization and prevent unnecessary costs.
Serverless computing, introduced for example in AWS Lambda, allows you to avoid the need of managing dedicated servers. This will help reduce costs caused by unused resources. Using Lambda, the user only pays for actual computation time spent, making this tool an effective choice for short-term and event-driven tasks.
While the best practices mentioned above provide a solid foundation for AWS cloud cost optimization, we can name some issues that require special attention. Let’s take a closer look at them.
Complex pricing model. The pricing structure in AWS is complex: to calculate the total cost, several factors are considered, including instance type, storage class, and data transfer. Understanding these aspects is critical in making informed resource allocation decisions.
Lack of visibility. In large-scale deployments, it can be challenging to maintain visibility into resource utilization across different teams and projects. The implementation of a well-structured tagging system (tags) can help organize resources and analyze costs more accurately.
Balance between efficiency and cost. Finding the right balance between application performance and cost optimization can be challenging. You need careful testing to ensure that cost-cutting measures don’t impact the quality of the user experience.
Workload volatility. Resource requirements can be changed according to workload development. Reevaluating and adjusting AWS infrastructure is vital to prevent over-allocation or under-utilization of resources.
Human factor. Lack of awareness or control can lead to wasteful costs. Ongoing training and vigilance within the team is key to maintaining cost-effective practices.
Reducing AWS costs requires a systematic and strategic approach, including careful resource tuning, dynamic scaling, choosing cost-effective services, and continuous monitoring attention. Despite the potential challenges, a deep understanding of AWS mechanisms and continuous infrastructure assessment can lead to significant budget optimization without s negative impact on performance.
The DevOps services company SHALB has extensive experience in combining these best practices and can help companies use the full efficiencies of AWS while keeping their budgets under tight control. SHALB’s DevOps services and solutions will help you take your business to the next level of performance and become more competitive in the digital product market.
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