Join our upcoming webinar to learn about SUSE Cloud Application Platform on Amazon Elastic Container Service for Kubernetes (Amazon EKS), and how it accelerates containerised application delivery.

Through integrated automation and customisation features, SUSE makes it easier for DevOps teams to deliver container applications, accelerate innovation, and improve IT responsiveness.

Click here to view the webinar page!

Live online September 3rd @ 10:00am

The post Webinar: SUSE Cloud Application Platform on Amazon EKS appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

As boardrooms wake up to the race for digital transformation and their consumers demand a new digital journey, software development teams need to step up to the challenge.

The last 12 months have seen further innovation in DevOps, along with the acceleration of cloud adoption and advances in technologies, such as containerisation and microservices.

Automation and AI

No prizes for my first prediction. Automation technologies will continue to extend further into the DevOps pipeline to deliver a quicker time-to-market with reduced errors, freeing up staff to focus on innovation as well as cutting costs. Automation will also become more prevalent in areas such as predictive software development.

Artificial intelligence is already starting to facilitate predictive analytics and coding to replace manually intensive tasks with intelligent insights, recommendations and automation. And as more testing is required to identify and rectify performance and security issues in production, the use of test automation and test-driven development will also increase.

Continuous monitoring of application use and performance will power feedback loops to highlight and address problems instantly.

Competition drives consolidation

2018 has seen industry consolidation with the acquisition of GitHub and Red Hat, as the big vendors bolster their DevOps propositions and aim to become the go-to ‘one-stop-shop’. No doubt we will see more of this strategy in 2019 as companies strengthen their position with customers and reduce integration headaches between tools.

But as the software development and DevOps communities are well known for getting behind popular tools, new leaders have emerged. It is likely we will see more from the large cloud providers as they entice developers to their platforms.

Containerisation and microservices

The growth in microservices and distributed systems has driven a massive increase in container workloads. Running containers in production is becoming standard practice and Kubernetes has been widely adopted as the container orchestration tool of choice, evidenced by the launch of Azure AKS and AWS EKS.

We will see legacy platforms start to become containerised or replaced as the benefits of this technology are now accepted. As organisations move from monolith to microservices, serverless computing – or Functions-as-a-Service – offered by leading cloud providers, will be used increasingly to focus on business logic rather than infrastructure.

Adoption will accelerate as organisations realise they can deliver applications at record speed and lower cost and this trend will undoubtedly generate increased workloads on cloud platforms. However, there is a risk of locking in applications to platform APIs and other services, which will be a concern for some.

The increasing use of microservices and distributed containerised systems bring more pressure on the network, which must be as agile and automation-ready as the applications running on it, rather than create a bottleneck.

One of the technologies for 2019 that promises to deliver high-performance, failsafe, dynamic and flexible networks but without the cost of legacy MPLS, is SD WAN. We will also see a growth in multi-hybrid cloud adoption as it no longer becomes simply a choice of cloud provider, but a means to optimise the cost, performance, architecture and location.

DevOps at scale

As business executives focus on speed and competitiveness, successful DevOps initiatives will drive more focus and investment. We will see DevOps scale to more teams and projects, with additional governance as businesses shift to enterprise tooling. Open Source has been very popular and an effective way to prove the capability of tools to automate the DevOps pipeline, but enterprises now need the assurance of stability, security, scalability and compatible integrations as this becomes a critical function.

Security and DevSecOps

There are over 100 billion lines of new code being produced every year – and each one can introduce a new vulnerability. Standard security checks are not enough anymore, especially with increasing audit and compliance requirements.

Security is increasingly shifting towards developers, to ensure applications are secure by design and vulnerabilities introduced by the increasing use of open source components are captured and addressed. If the right tools are not in place to identify vulnerable software, attackers will find and exploit these weaknesses first.

Marlene Spensley, application optimisation practice lead, Nuvias

The post What will be the key DevOps trends in 2019? appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

The digital revolution is driving change in the software development and testing community. New processes, disciplines and the tumbling walls between silos mean tools are essential and the challenges of continuous delivery, DevOps regimes and shift-left are forcing testers to rethink how they test and where tools fit. The automation challenge has moved from selection and implementation of two or three tools for each discipline to selection and implementation of 20 or 30 tools for a project team using DevOps.

High volume of DevOps tools

Digital and DevOps are everywhere in the software blogs and media. Although DevOps is primarily a cultural change designed to reduce the delays in delivery and deployment, there is a focus on tools as an enabler. In principle, all of the processes to support continuous delivery are automated – now or at some point in the future. The tools required to provide this support include virtualisation and containerisation, source control, provisioning and of course, testing.

One key goal of digital is to continuously deploy to production to conduct experiments. The DevOps tools chain, as it is called, extends into production and includes logging, monitoring and analytics, so the range of tools required is much broader than we are used to. Nowadays, companies require twenty or so tools to be fully automated.

Tools to support digital programmes and DevOps.

But increasingly, requirements, story, release and task management and other collaborative tools are seen as part of the DevOps tools chain. The full tool chain might now have 30 tools. The schematic above attempts to place the tool types involved into a more meaningful structure.

The challenge of acquiring integrated tools chains is more complicated (and expensive) than before.

Curated listings of tools

Now, for as long as the web has existed, there have been websites that provide lists of references to tools that support for example, test automation. These web pages and sites have usually been set up by individuals, wishing to share their knowledge of software tools for their own communities. But it’s a burdensome task to create and maintain these lists. Vendors move webpages around, they rename tools, they merge and split tool functionality, they add new tools and new vendors and tools are popping up all the time. It’s really hard to maintain the accuracy of lists like these.

If you look around the various websites that provide such lists, this is what you tend to find:

• Listings do not provide much detail beyond simple categorisation, e.g. ‘Web’ or ‘Mobile’ test tools.
• Invariably, the lists are incomplete. Common tools are listed; less well-known tools are often missing.
• Most listings are dominated by proprietary tools. Open source tools are less well-represented, although some ‘free tools’ listings do exist, they are still incomplete.
• Many tools have functionality that spans multiple categories. Some are available in proprietary, some are open source and deployed on workstations, servers or SaaS platforms. Tools might be listed in multiple categories, but usually not.
• Tools listings often provide a link to a vendor web page and little else. Forums, training, supporting service companies or contractors are not usually listed and cannot be searched.
• Tools cannot be compared with respect to functionality, licensing, platforms or integrations.
• There are no tools usage statistics available; we have to rely on vendor marketing to gauge popularity.
• Not enough information, too much advertising.

The Tools Knowledge Base

The Tools Knowledge Base is a free-to-use service providing information on tools, vendors and the consultants and service companies that support them. It has been created by Gerrard Consulting working with TestOpera Limited and (among other features) provides:

• A searchable directory of over 2412 tools: Our focus is (broadly) DevOps, SDET and test activities. Each tool record stores limited data but links to the vendor or developer web page. This basic information and the content of the tools web page are downloaded and indexed nightly by our search engine.
• A sophisticated search engine: The search facility can be used to find tools using textual queries.
• A hierarchical tool type/features list: Every tool can be properly profiled and compared.
• Over 19,813 searchable blog posts: We download the content of blogs from over 300 bloggers each night. We do not store the blog posts, we provide a searchable index and link to the sources.
• Embeddable content: We offer a range of APIs allowing conferences, service companies and consultants to access and share our data on their own websites.

How do I use the Tools Knowledge Base? How is it kept up to date?

If you are tools user: we’d like you to register, and identify the tools you use. Your tools chain will appear on your profile. If a tool you use is not in TKB, then we invite you to create it. (If you want to embed the tools you use as a list in your website, there is an API for that).

If you are a tools expert or tools service provider: please see above, plus…we are looking for people who are knowledgeable enough to review or possibly edit the features listings for the tools you know well. The features hierarchy will grow and evolve over time – help us to perfect it. We will list you as a service provider on the tools you know best. It’s the least we can do.

If you are a tool vendor: we ask you to search for the tools you offer and check they are in the system and properly described. If your tools exist in the system and you want to manage the information we hold, that’s fine – we can make you the administrator (after a quick check on ownership). Alternatively, nominate a tools expert and we’ll invite them to keep your details correct. We can also maintain the data on your behalf.

If you own/contribute to an open source project: We make exactly the same offer as we make to the vendors. You are free to edit the information for your tools in the same way. You might already use GitHub, for example. We offer an extra publicity channel to reach a broader audience. People looking for tools often start their search with proprietary products and rarely see free tools listed side by side. Now is your chance.

If you are a blogger: Search for one of your recent blog posts and if you find it – your blog is already indexed in the system. If not, you can suggest the blog and register it yourself as long as it aligns with our scope (DevOps, testing and collaboration). Company blogs and general technology blogs are also acceptable. If your blog is indexed, let us know, and we will give you credit for it on your profile.

If you maintain your own online tools listing: please get in touch. We believe we already have more comprehensive listings than anyone else. We can provide ad-free, embeddable tool-type listings for your existing site. Join us as a partner and tools expert and help us to improve the data in our system to improve the value of your site. There are currently 183 tool type listings – all are available for free.

If you want a tools listing on your own site: Get in touch. We make the same offer as above. 

The Tools Knowledge Base is an attempt to help with the problem of tools research, evaluation and selection. We need your help as users, tool suppliers, developers and experts to make it the tools directory of choice for Digital projects and DevOps regimes.

Edited for web by Cecilia Rehn.

The post A tools directory for digital programmes and DevOps regimes appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

ITV’s technology background

In the past five years, ITV has switched from waterfall into agile development.

“It was all manual before, and it wasn’t keeping up with the pace of change that we needed,” Clark said.

The decision was made to introduce automation into the stack from end to end. There was a transition from a more traditional functional silo approach into a product team approach.

“We now have development teams headed by product owners. The smaller teams encompass everyone from developers, to testers, scrum masters and platform engineers. The team takes ownership – you build it, you run it.”

As traditional media companies have evolved to embrace new multi-channel commercial opportunities – ITV was one of the first with its online player and user-friendly online hub – Clark explains that a transition to DevOps came out of a more collaborative strategy.

“ITV is set up with different independent divisions, from studios to commercial, broadcast and online,” Clark said. “They all run and operate very independently. We began working in a DevOps manner in Online around three years ago, and once the company as a whole began to adopt the Common Platform, it was natural to use the DevOps practices that were working so well.”

In March 2015, ITV began implementing DevOps across the rest of the company in earnest.

Cultural changes following a DevOps transition

The transition into smaller product teams across ITV has had a positive effect. And by allowing teams to take ownership of everything they build, it has changed the psychology of team members, who benefit from instant feedback and increased collaboration.

“Our developers are really happy that they get to see their code in production. Even if it fails, they’re happy they get to fix it quickly,” Clark said. “From a dev perspective it’s been hugely positive. And also from a business perspective. It can seem like shifting to a DevOps model would be more expensive, but in actual fact we’ve been able to achieve a lot more with less, thanks to increased automation and standardisation in tools used. We can do more work in parallel than before.”

Challenges

The road to full DevOps implementation was not always smooth. Convincing people was the biggest challenge.

“It was hard to convince everyone to give it a try,” Clark explains. “Also, it’s still a tricky concept, whereby people still don’t fully understand what DevOps means.”

The team at ITV were aided by the fact that colocation was possible for the small product teams, and indeed, collaboration and communication is working so well that many team members can be spread out and/or work from home without disrupting workflow.

“We have engineers in different cities, and people can work from home. We use a lot of communication tools such as Slack, Trello, Github and Google Hangouts. We make sure that the flow of information is always there,” Clark said.

The future

The future looks bright at ITV as it continues to evolve and invest in DevOps.

“We’re investing a lot in building the right teams, recruitment is a challenge – I joke that I went into management at the wrong time, as DevOps skills have never been in more demand,” Clark said.

To help train and support its staff, ITV encourages team members to go to conferences and attend meet-ups, as well as holding internal workshops to promote self-learning.

In terms of the future, Clark is excited about new technologies and increased awareness of DevOps in general.

“Personally, I’m interested in containerisation, and where this technology will take us. Also, I think security is an area where we need to devote a lot of energy –we’re working closely with our security team to make sure they’re working at the same speed as the rest of us,” Clark said.

“ITV is a FTSE100 company and people make a lot of assumptions about what goes on behind closed doors – and it’s exciting to tell people about our DevOps journey and help promote this IT philosophy.”

Tom Clark will be speaking on DevOps at ITV at the DevOps Enterprise Summit

Written by Cecilia Rehn

The post Continuously evolving: DevOps at ITV appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

“You can observe a lot by just watching” – Yogi Berra, Hall of Fame Baseball catcher, manager and coach. Well known for his malapropisms.

If you can learn a lot by watching, you can also learn a lot by asking. So when we wanted to find out the current thinking about use of containers with databases and other applications, we asked. And 200 IT professionals told us what they think.

Increase in spend on container-based technology

For one thing, the survey results prove beyond doubt that the move towards containerisation is nearly unstoppable. More than 4 out of 5 respondents expected their companies to increase their spend in container-based technology.

What may be a bit surprising to some is the use of containers for stateful or data-centric applications. Containers have gained an incredible level of mindshare among developers, and there is a near unanimity that technology such as Docker’s will soon become the standard way to pack and deploy stateless applications. Opinions, however, can be divided on how useful containers are for performance-sensitive data applications, such as databases. As someone who has spent his lifetime working with databases, I can vouch for how transformative a container-based platform can be for these applications, but we wanted to hear what data professionals and IT managers thought about it.

And this is where the survey results may hold a surprise or two. Three out of 4 respondents told us they are actively looking to run data applications within containers. The drivers cited for this trend were not surprising. Respondents pointed to the ability to consolidate workload (without losing performance or predictability) and to reduce performance ahead (as compared to hypervisors-based virtualisation) as leading factors prompting greater adoption of containers.

In fact container use is growing for all things data. Containers are emerging as the preferred platform for running databases, with approximately half the respondents doing so. About 40% of respondents indicated they have deployed Big Data applications such as Hadoop and Spark within containers.

Vibrant container technology landscape

The other surprising survey finding is the vibrant container technology landscape. While Docker is certainly getting its share of interest and adoption, system container technologies such as LXC and LXD remain as the preferred containerisation technology for running data-centric applications, with 60% citing their use. That is understandable because, unlike application containers technology such as Docker that are designed to run a single process or service, System Containers are essentially lightweight VMs that can run multiple services and applications, have their own host name and IP addresses that you can SSH into, and pretty much manage like VMs.

The use of System Containers with data applications therefore provides many of the benefits of a hypervisor-based virtualisation but with bare metal performance and much lower management overhead because of shared OS and binaries.

We tried to get a feeling for how far along the respondents’ organisations are in their adoption of containers, and a majority are using them to some degree. Containers are already used in production at 35% of respondents’ companies, and another 26% are experimenting with them.

So what do we make of all this? For one thing the findings are consistent with the approach we have taken with Robin’s containerisation platform. Performance-sensitive applications such as databases should demonstrate superior performance on a containers-based platform thanks to the ability to consolidate without compromising performance or predictability. Robin’s vision is to provide enterprises a high-performance and elastic platform for stateful and mission-critical applications. We think a containerised approach will prove the right one, and it would seem our survey respondents agree.

Edited for web by Cecilia Rehn.

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