Shift left for example, is the practice of testing early and often. This is to prevent problems from occurring later down the line. However, those that practice this form of Test Driven Development will probably have come across issues that start to arise.

Problems with Shift Left

Rhys Arkins, Director of Product at open source security platform, WhiteSource, notes that when it comes to Shift Left practices, there is not enough quality control and not enough visibility, especially in open source, and this is when problems arise. In his field, these complications are largely security based.

Arkins believes that part of the difficulty is a time issue. He says, “By most estimates, the typical software project today is comprised of 90% or more Open Source components. It would be a rare company that could claim to have full visibility over these open source dependencies – let alone confidence in the security of them – because nobody has the time to review the millions of lines of code involved.”

“This challenge is not helped if company risk management of such open source components is assigned to only dedicated “security” teams whose job is to try to catch things before it’s too late. The “shift left” approach in the Software Composition Analysis industry is about getting as much information as possible (policy violations, security warnings, etc) to developers so they can address problems as early as possible in the software development lifecycle. Developers are usually better placed to remediate dependency problems (e.g. upgrade to a safe version, or replace the dependency with another) and catching problems earlier results in lower overall costs, than if problems are only caught once products have reached the market.” Adds the Director of Product.

Similar issues with Kubernetes

It isn’t just raw shift left practices that are seeing problems in DevOps teams. Originally designed by Google, the open-source container-orchestration system of Kubernetes is also seeing its fair share of criticism. However, it seems this is not due to flaws in the product, but with the developers that are using it.

Similar to shift left, Kubernetes is really having its day at the moment. Although, once again, despite being created as a way to help developers, it has been suggested people are using it without the full knowledge of how.

Will Hall, A DevOps Consultant at HeleCloud a cloud transformation company, believes that there is a lot of focus on Kubernetes. However, he suggests people need to realise that using it is part of an interface solution and is not an answer to problems. He also implies that people make choices, but don’t know why they are doing them.

“Kubernetes exists for a purpose. At its nature is should be able to deliver dual value of resource optimization, wherein you can more easily shift available resources to where they are required and therefore scale and also deliver the seamless experience with operating a container orchestration platform.” Says Hall.

He continues to discuss that Docker tends to dominate the containers market to become the “defacto container runtime.”

Hall adds: “Nowadays, when you say containers, you probably mean Docker. However, the orchestrations market has been more fragmented. The main challenge of this is that developers, DevOps and operations teams have wanted to use containers to develop and support applications, but to do that require a stable, and more importantly, generic solution to orchestrate, providing healing, scaling and optimizing. Kubernetes offers that.”

“However, and this is a big however, recently it has appeared that Kubernetes has been suggested as the answer to a whole range of application issues. Yet, it does not offer a panacea to deliver applications, nor is adopting Kubernetes without significant operational, cultural and tooling changes. My general opinion is that at the moment Kubernetes deals with thousands and millions, of which is it thousands of containers, or millions of dollars of infrastructure.” Hall suggests.

What is the solution?

With these points in mind, it doesn’t all have to be bad. Using these practices are genuinely designed to help people in their work and when used in the right way, are extremely beneficial. According to dzone.com, to optimise Shift Left, teams should come together to create a shared vision and essentially “think” about the best approaches. It also recommends building test cases and using automation.

Writing for hackernoon.com, Fahim ul Haq says that the best way to optimise Kubernetes is to integrate and orchestrate modular parts as well as deploying and updating applications, amongst other suggestions.

The post Is lack of knowledge creating failures in DevOps practices? appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

The appetite to invest in wireless technology is reaching levels of 90% according to recent research, and globally, businesses do agree on the top reasons for why they are investing in technology.

However, the importance of investing varies when viewed from the perspective of senior-level executives compared with those on the frontline of an organisation.

This digital transformation has resulted in businesses becoming far more reliant on technology to manage the day to day operations and for efficient decision making. To be successful in this environment, organisations must evolve to be smarter, stronger and faster than they are today, enabled by changes across three dimensions: organisation and talent; business and customer; and process and technology.

Those leading the change will have a distinct advantage over their competitors — a performance gap that will continue to grow as emerging technologies and digital channels offer further insight using data from both within and outside the enterprise.

Organisation and talent

The business environment continues to demand richer communication and collaboration for employees who are increasingly mobile or distributed. Organisations are increasingly deploying devices for employee use, with recent research from SOTI revealing that 76% of employees agree the business they work for has invested in mobile technology to better their working experience and improve the ways in which they do their job.

Mobility and flexibility are transforming the way businesses and industries harness the collective insight of their workforce, utilising mobile technologies to increase the efficiency of business processes, improve decision making and deliver accurate information in real time. 86% of senior management employees agree that the company they work for is investing in mobile technology to stand out from the competition.

However, only 55% of those at entry level agree, so as the evidence shows, the investment strategy is not filtering through from the top to the frontline. If a business invests well even in basic technology, it can instantly boost staff motivation and productivity as well as appeal to prospective customers.

Employees expect an easy, quick and efficient experience whenever they use a device, whether onsite or remotely. For most businesses, the workforce is its largest investment. From motivating and developing talent to creating an engaged workforce, the effectiveness of employee management has a direct impact on business results and competitiveness.

Business and customer

In any industry, technology is a key component to understand and meet market needs and customer expectations.  In fact, 66% of employees agree the business they work for is investing in devices and apps to better understand what its customers and clients are doing.

A new dynamic exists in which customers now expect service providers to have a deeper level of knowledge of their needs and future needs. This means the quality of the customer experience is of the utmost importance. Customers are demanding a connected and streamlined experience, and now more than ever, organisations need digital intelligence to properly understand their customers with the agility to respond to changing needs and market dynamics at pace.

Technology investment is critical no matter the size of an enterprise, because of its central role in today’s business world. However, research is indicating that smaller businesses may be falling short. Only 58% of employees in smaller businesses (50-249) believes that their company is investing in the technology to better understand customers compared with 73% of larger businesses (500-999).

It seems that as quickly as new technologies come to market (making it easier for businesses to provide customer service) the number of channels through which businesses interact with customers and the complexity and cost of those interactions is increasing.

That’s why it’s so important to recognise how investing in a mobile strategy can help to anticipate customer needs, tailor business processes to best serve customers, and ultimately improve the efficiency of a business.

Process and technology

The role of IT has evolved from being a historical provider of technology to challenging processes and leading the digital changes across organisations on a global scale. Reflecting this, 69% of employees believe their company is investing in mobile devices to differentiate themselves from the competition.

The market has shifted, and businesses are now embracing mobility as a game-changer, lowering the overall cost of IT investment by reducing device costs, making business operations more efficient and making employees more productive –  key elements in growing revenue and increasing profitability.

Leveraging a mobile strategy has many distinct advantages including a higher level of employee responsiveness and engagement.

Today, digital transformation is infiltrating every aspect of an organisation and as a result, technology demands across departments have skyrocketed. It is now critical for senior executives to effectively manage those out in the field.

Therefore, a comprehensive strategy is needed to empower the workforce, equipping them with the tools to work remotely and completely changing the way that certain departments communicate and operate. This allows the company to transform the business, unleashing endless possibilities as a result and helps to reach critical growth for their business.

With the gauntlet laid down for businesses to facilitate more mobile working and to make the process as effective as possible, it’s clear that companies that choose not to embrace mobility as part of their strategy could find themselves playing catch-up.

Written by Richard Smith, regional manager, SOTI

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