Can DevOps as a Service Alleviate Adoption Pains?
DevOps practices have moved past pure software development and into enterprise adoption, facilitating faster updates to applications and associated infrastructure.
The crux of DevOps is the unification of tools and processes between development and operations teams to decrease time to market/deployment and implement continuous improvements throughout the development, testing, implementation, and ongoing maintenance of applications and underlying infrastructure.
Despite widespread DevOps adoption — or at least the majority of surveyed enterprises reporting they have started the journey towards it — many organizations are still struggling. Enter DevOps as a Service. But is DevOps as a Service a legitimate offering? The definition is still evolving, and different MSPs may offer different takes on DevOps-a-a-S.
Should You Be Using Microservices in Your App Development?
While microservice application architecture dates back to 2011, enterprise IT tends to move relatively slowly when it comes to the adoption of new technologies. The concept and methodology has been refined in concert with the rise of cloud computing, and now microservices are a popular way to build, deploy, and most importantly scale applications.
Microservices can improve your agility, security, and resiliency, but they require a major adjustment to your development team’s workflow and the architecture of your application itself. Read on to learn the advantages of microservices and potential caveats for their use.
Best Practices for Load Testing Cloud Applications
The holidays are looming, meaning many DevOps teams are about to have their apps take a beating as hundreds of holiday orders and new device users slam them all at the same time. Whether or not your systems are consumer-focused, there will eventually come a time when the overall load on your servers is pushed to the limit.
Load testing applications in the cloud allows development and testing staff to perform scale testing to see at what point virtual machines need to scale, when to add additional resources like storage or bandwidth, and when a failover solution might be necessary.
By thoroughly performing load tests throughout the DevOps process, your organization eventually lowers costs and your team doesn’t have to scramble during a major event. Here are some best practices when performing cloud-based load testing.
How to Create a Successful Cloud Team
While your admins might have virtualization experience, transitioning to a cloud-first IT strategy involves a real paradigm shift across your entire IT team. You’ve heard some of this before: you’ll be more agile, your team will be focused on service delivery instead of hardware, you’ll work on business issues rather than break/fix.
What you may not have considered are how the roles of your new cloud team may shift from previous responsibilities, or just how far reaching the culture change may be. Here are some tips to build a successful cloud service team within your organization.
When To Use a Container vs. When to Use a Virtual Machine
Containers are on the rise, with VMware integrating them into the vSphere platform. What started seemingly as a competitor to virtual machines has proved to be just another tool in the virtualization box available to administrators beyond software testing and development, as enterprises and mid-market companies of all sizes begin to implement containers alongside (and inside) their VMs.
Once you read a bit about the benefits of containerization, you may be curious about trying some out in your environment. But before you start spinning up containers left and right, make sure you’re using the right tool for the job. Containers certainly have their advantages, but there are many applications where a virtual machine will be more effective. Here’s how to decide.
Which Database Management Platform is Right for You?
While Oracle and MySQL remain top picks for database systems, there are many others available, from big guns like Microsoft SQL Server to the increasingly popular MongoDB. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, so your latest IT project may find you scratching your head as you try to decide on database software.
See the difference between SQL and NoSQL databases, a comparison of the top platforms, and questions to ask in this database selection guide.
How to Transform IT into an Agile Service Broker
Agility, DevOps, scalability…they often sound like a lot of buzzwords. But you can transform your IT department into an IT as a Service broker within your own organization by adopting DevOps and cloud methodology. The end result is greater productivity, both for your users and your IT team.
The Software Development Grenade
DevOps was created in response to the disconnect between the development team and the operations team within IT departments. This disconnect stems from a lack of communication and collaboration that creates this “wall of confusion” separating the IT department into two very distinct sections, resulting in low productivity.
Sometimes, You Gotta Leave an App Behind (When It Can’t Be Virtualized)
Virtualization is a standard practice for IT shops around the world. However, as more data center operators look to consolidate and migrate to new virtualized environments, some legacy applications remain stumbling blocks on the way to a 100% virtualized infrastructure.
Legacy apps are tough nuts to crack: your users are accustomed to them, so they are highly efficient in business use, but they might clash with your more modern IT tools, they might no longer supported by the vendor, or the hardware underneath might be ready to kick the bucket.
“No worries,” I hear you say. “I can just virtualize the platform.”
That might work in most cases, but there are some legacy apps that either just won’t make the leap to virtualization or are too much trouble to virtualize to make it worthwhile. Here are the most common examples run into by our techs:
How to Handle Seasonal Web Traffic Spikes with the Cloud
As the holiday season approaches, is your web infrastructure prepared to handle increased traffic? Can your back office systems accommodate a sudden increase in web transactions? Will your IT team be on call and ready to respond if they need to quickly bring additional servers online?
Seasonal spikes in web traffic are the reality for many industries including online retail. Businesses that aren’t prepared can be left scrambling to quickly setup new servers or, even worse, experience a website crash creating dissatisfied customers and lost revenue.
In this interview with Cortney Thompson, Green House Data Vice President of Operations, you’ll learn how to prepare your business for seasonal fluctuations in web traffic.