Tag: devops

How To Explain DevOps – 10 Ways To Get It Perfectly Right

Posted on by eugene evdokimov

DevOps: 10 Explanations That Get It Perfectly Right

Describing your profession to other people is never easy, especially if you work in the development field. Non-technical people often lack the understanding and terms that may seem just so obvious to you. And if you’re a DevOps expert, multiply the struggle times 10.

To help, we’ve put together a cheat sheet style post to explain DevOps to non-technical people. Send this to your friends and family or reference a section, the hope is that you will be able to explain what it is you do in half the time it usually takes you. We also hope others will realize that DevOps is one of the most critical – and misunderstood – elements of business today.

Rundown on DevOps

DevOps is the combination of Development & Operations. It’s a process used to create better products, which is done by streamlining communication between those who build the product, and those who are responsible for its functioning. DevOps is much more than a “profession” though, it’s a culture, a new way of thinking. And in order to be effective, DevOps has to be a part of an organization’s DNA.

Cheat Sheet

Here is a list of ways to explain DevOps to 10 different people. After all, explaining what DevOps is to non-techies is almost as hard as actually being a DevOps practitioner!

  1. Your Mom

You: So Mom, remember when X (replace with your little sibling’s name) was born and you told dad that you need a new car, only to come home and see he had bought a Coupé?

Well, that’s Dad being a typical developer, racing away to build an advanced product. And the car, well, that’s like the product itself. If Dad had communicated with an Operations expert (you, Mom), and had a DevOps mindset, he would have bought a car with a trunk that could actually hold a stroller.

  1. A 6-year Old

You: Why are you crying?

6-year old: I built a 6ft Lego tower

You: Wow, that’s pretty amazing, where is it?

6-year old: (crying) On the living room floor. Broken to pieces

(Silence)

6-year old: “She did it!” (Pointing at 9-month old sister who just crawled into the room)

You guessed it. The Lego tower is – well, was – the product. The 6-year old is the developer, and the 9-month old is malicious software exploiting a security breach. DevOps would have been you and the 6-year old talking before building the tower, agreeing to build the Lego tower (product) in their room, where it’s safe from little siblings (malicious software).

  1. Your Teenager

You: You know why we don’t let you have parties at home anymore, right?

Teenager: Oh come on… it was like 2 decades ago!

You: 2 months ago, for starters. And we’re still paying for the damage your 70 friends did to the living room.

In this scenario, your house is the product, and the living room is a server, with capacity for 30 people, max. DevOps would be your teenager understanding the living room’s limitations and taking the party to the backyard when the living room was getting too full.  

  1. A Traffic Officer

You: Imagine you’re on highway patrol, and everything looks normal. Just regular people driving straight in their lanes. Then, all of the sudden, you see someone swerving back and forth across lanes. So, of course, you pull them over to make sure they aren’t drunk.

Well, that’s DevOps. Everyone on the road is like data acting the same way it did yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that. The drunk driver is data that behaves differently than what you expect (an anomaly) and alerts you to investigate further. And the traffic officer is the DevOps engineer ensuring everything continues to run smoothly when something is off.

  1. Your Grandmother

You: Remember how you used to spend hours walking around malls looking for Christmas presents for us?

Grandmother: Yes, of course, dear.

You: And isn’t it great that Mom now sends you links to Amazon, and you just order everything online?”

Grandmother: Oh yes, I love seeing you wearing the sweater I bought you!

Your Mom showing your Grandmother a smarter and more efficient way of shopping for gifts is what DevOps is all about. It’s making sure you create the right product according to your customers’ needs (even though not every generation may understand it).

  1. Your Local Grocery Store Cashier

You: You know when you want to cancel a product, but then have to call the main cashier to swipe their card for permission?

Cashier: Yes, it’s the most frustrating and time-consuming problem.

In this scenario, you, the cashier, are the developer, wanting to revert something on production, and the main cashier is the DevOps.  

  1. Your Waiter/Waitress

You: Do you aim to bring your customers their food as fast as possible?

Waiter/Waitress: Yes, of course!  

You: Would you bring a customer their drink after they’ve already finished their food?

Waiter/Waitress: No of course not. What would be the point?

It may seem obvious, but a waiter or waitress delivering a customer their food without their drink would be a software developer. They’re aiming to deliver right away even though delivering one without the other doesn’t do anyone any good. Making sure customers get a perfectly cooked burger, together with their soda for the perfect experience, now that’s what DevOps is all about.

  1. Your Uber Driver

You: Remember that time you picked up that drunk guy who wanted to put a box in your trunk?

Uber Driver: Yes…

You: And then the box turned out to be full of beer bottles that broke and ruined your trunk?

Uber Driver: It’ll be awhile until I forget that!

You: And remember how you couldn’t work for a week afterward because you had to clean up the car and get rid of the smell?

Uber Driver: Yes, thanks for bringing it up again.

Your car is the product, and the drunk dude is a new developer who wanted to push code on a Friday afternoon. A DevOps expert would be the drunk guy’s (sober) friend telling you (the Uber Driver) that he is drunk and that you should be careful because that box can break and ruin your trunk.

  1. Your Dog (in the case he/she speaks English)

“Rover, giving me the signal that you need to poop, then waiting by the door for me to get ready and take you out, that’s classic DevOps. Who’s a good boy!?”

  1. Your Cat ( in the case he/she gives a damn about what you do)

“When you spend hours observing the front deck just in case a mouse tries to sneak in the house, that’s DevOps.”

Changing Your View

We hope this post has been not only enjoyable to read, but useful in giving you ways to explain what DevOps is to whoever it is you’re speaking to. As mentioned, DevOps is a whole new way of thinking, and when properly implemented, it adds massive value to organizations.

To learn more about DevOps and stay in the know with the latest trends, tips and tricks, follow our blog!

Game of Logs: delivery assurance is coming

Posted on by eugene evdokimov

Long gone are the days were software companies released a version every six months, after rigorous planning, testing and stress runs (AKA the waterfall model). Today, agile companies release versions on a daily basis, to numerous servers, deployed on the cloud. Their software is composed out of many open source technologies and often supports a large customer base which keeps growing and challenging the production.

Game of logs - delivery assurance

The main challenge of today’s agile software companies is to maintain a high level of quality to their application, despite the fact that they continuously add new code to their production which most often than not will not be tested on a live stream of data.

One of the best ways to understand what your production is doing is the application logs that your software emits, due to that reason, many companies arose to the challenge and offered a log monitoring service which allow companies to sift through their log entries and investigate problems.

The real problem begins when you have dozens of servers emitting millions of records, from different data sources. Sure, you’ll be able to view, search and query the data, but what should you search for? How can you be alerted on problems you never thought about? How can you view millions of logs in the limited time you have? Your code and logs are changing constantly, your production deals with an ever changing work load and the app logic is getting ever more complexed.

We already concluded that an old fashion QA will not help with the above case; too many tests to define, too many code changes, too many live servers, too many logs to sift through and so little time. To deal with this problem, one needs to approach the issue in a whole different mindset, we at Coralogix defined this mindset as Delivery Assurance – DA.

Delivery Assurance

‘Delivery assurance’ is a concept which incorporates the entire application delivery lifecycle, including the Build cycles, continuous integration, version release and production monitoring. The concept mandates that all the building blocks of the application’s lifecycle send event data to a centralized hub, once the data is collected, the hub is required to learn the normal behavior of the application delivery lifecycle, and alert when something goes out of bounds.

The described Hub is exactly what we at Coralogix are striving to build: A service which taps into various data sources, whether it’s log data, pipeline events, configuration management events, or APM insights, and automatically understands the application’s baseline.

That way, Coralogix can provide automatic insights in the context of versions or other external events without the need to define any rules or static thresholds.

Moreover, Coralogix helps companies understand their version’s health immediately after they were released and compare any two versions or points of time in order to find discrepancies between them.

To summarize; Today’s agile software world is filled with new and exciting technologies, but it comes with a price, this price is an ever growing complexity of systems and amount of data, one needs to change his mind set in order to truly deliver quality products to their customers, we believe that ‘Delivery Assurance’ is that change in mindset.

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DevOps: Overcoming the Barriers to Adoption

Posted on by eugene evdokimov

Considering the countless benefits of incorporating DevOps into practices, the barriers that are often faced towards adoption can be considered comical. If you’re facing difficulties in convincing the higher-ups that now is the time to implement (or at least look into) DevOps, you’re not alone. Thankfully, there is a way to make your presentation more solid and convincing.

According to research conducted by Interop ITX on the state of DevOps, there are numerous barriers that are interfering with adoption, despite the rise of early adopters reaping the benefits of DevOps. The majority of reasons behind resistance are as indicated below:

DevOps barriers

Is it possible to present a winning case, despite being surrounded by the opposition? Absolutely.

Presentation is Key

Depending on the corporate environment, DevOps explained can sometimes be a hard sell. Is it enough to say, “It’ll help us get more done”? No. That’s pretty generic. To spark the transition from traditional methods to DevOps, you may instead need to present benefits by focusing on the business perspective (which by the way, directly impacts company culture.)

Place emphasis on how DevOps assists with:

  1. The stability within operating environments
  1. Dramatically improved collaboration/communication
  2. Saved money, time, and resources- which could be used towards innovation

Investment in Infrastructure

Implementing enterprise DevOps solutions is a necessary step to take if maximizing the efficiency of your operations and development teams is a priority for your organization.

This is to be viewed as an investment in infrastructure. The lack of this investment results in teams operating at a much slower pace, with noticeably reduced quality in results.

Goals need to be laid out beforehand, followed by practices that would support each goal. It’s very beneficial to leverage numerous approaches in DevOps, including automation, continuous integration, and continuous testing. Changes are seldom expected to take place overnight, as everything builds on the practices of previous frameworks.

A Different Kind of Beast

In the case of log analysis – DevOps is a different kind of beast. It is intrinsically linked with SaaS and Big Data. This allows it to utilize each platform to instantly pinpoint, assess, and resolve errors and anomalies. It’s a precious asset for companies, especially for their developers, because of the time and frustration that is saved from identifying and fixing issues.

In turn, that significantly raises the quality of workflow and deployments- and let’s not forget the shortened release cycles.

So how can you overcome the barriers of the adoption of DevOps?

Cover the full scope of benefits, with concrete examples that will have them nodding their heads. In addition to the business benefits we previously mentioned, dive deep into the other perks that go hand-in-hand. Perks such as the customer experience, employee productivity, quality of service, efficiency of operations/processes- and make it all come full circle by discussing the many ways it would ultimately lead to new business growth.

What DevOps Look for When Choosing a Logging and Monitoring Tool

Posted on by eugene evdokimov

By now DevOps are hopefully aware that among the multitude of modern analytics methods available to them, an advanced log monitoring tool provides the most complete view into how a product is functioning. Cases of log files among DevOps are broad, ranging from the expected, like production monitoring and development debugging, to the less obvious, like business analytics.

But when faced with the dizzying list of third-party logging tools on the market, what key features should DevOps look for before making a choice? And is it possible to find a single platform that combines all the essential features for today’s SDLC?

The Must-Haves When Choosing a Logging and Monitoring Tool

Functionalities you might assume as standard among logging tools may not be universally offered, and the most recent developments in log management — particularly via machine learning — might pleasantly surprise you. This list of features is a good starting point for narrowing down the large market selection and choosing the best logging and enterprise monitoring tools for your needs:

Range and Scalability – As a product’s user base expands, the range of log sources that DevOps need to monitor grows as well. A logging tool should collect logs from each system component, application-side or server-side, and provide access to them in one centralized location. Not all logging platforms are capable of maintaining speed as the number of logs they process grows. Therefore, you should keep a critical eye on the process when trying out different solutions.

Advanced Aggregation – It’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the data that a logging tool collects. Good aggregation features should allow DevOps to group their logs together according to a variety of shared characteristics, including log origin (devices, servers, databases, applications), feature usage, user action, error type, etc. As logs are generated they can be automatically analyzed to determine which of the existing groups they fit into, and then categorized accordingly.

Intelligent Pattern Recognition – Advancements in machine learning allow contemporary logging and monitoring tools to quickly (within two weeks, in Coralogix’s case) learn the standard log syntaxes within a given system. This gives the platform a sense of what the logs look like when components of the system are running optimally, and saves DevOps time that would be spent programming the platform with standard log patterns.

Automatic Anomaly Flagging – The days of static reporting are over. Once a platform has learned log patterns, it can generate DevOps alerts notifying DevOps of deviations in those patterns, including possible bugs, security vulnerabilities, sudden changes in user behavior, and more.

Deep Storage – In order to discover the history behind certain product behaviors, or to really get a clear sense of evolving trends in your business, you’ll need to dig deep. Extended storage times for old log files may also be necessary for terms of compliance, be it with externally-mandated laws and practices or for your specific organization’s internal standards.

Search Functionality – In the event that a bug is reported by users, rather than automatically identified by your logging tool, you need a high-performing search function to track the issue down among the heap of log files. Note that it’s not a given for all logging platforms to provide code context (what occurred before and after the issue) for a search result, or extensive filtering options to narrow down returns of false leads.

Minimal Footprint – What’s the point of using logs to monitor signs of potential resource abuse within your environment if the log management platform you’re using contributes to that abuse? When you test run a logging tool, it’s crucial to be mindful of the impact it has on your system’s overall performance.

Keep It Consolidated

There’s nothing cohesive, practical, or fiscally sound about using a conveyor belt of different enterprise tools. Time is wasted by constantly readjusting to the workflow of each, and money is wasted by virtue of adding 5-10 line items to a budget rather than one.

The checklist in this article is lengthy, but surprisingly attainable within a single logging platform. If a DevOps team finds itself piecing together multiple logging and monitoring tools in order to satisfy its full range of needs across development, testing, and production, it might be time to move to a more holistic solution.

Key Steps to Implementing Enterprise DevOps

Posted on by eugene evdokimov

Whether your team is currently using an Agile approach to manage its enterprise monitoring software development or has yet to institute a formal project management system, implementing enterprise DevOps solutions is a necessary step to take if maximizing the efficiency of your operations and development teams is a priority for your organization.

Knowing where to begin, however, can be a challenge.

This is particularly true when it comes to implementing major organizational changes in the enterprise environment. To help you get started, here are the key steps your organization needs to take to take the leap towards becoming a ‘DevOps shop’.

Essential components for implementing enterprise DevOps

Core to these is provisioning tools, at all levels of the IT stack, to support the modular deployment of software to the production environment. DevOps builds on Agile’s central tenant of encouraging the quick deployment of modular development iterations, but places its central emphasis on removing constraints between the development and system administration/operations functions.

Matching the development and production build environments and ensuring that they operate cohesively rather than as silos allows for the continual updating of the code-base with far greater efficiency than would be possible if the philosophy were not implemented. Ensuring this, however, relies largely on streamlined workflows and automated processes, such as those designed by popular tools such as Puppet and Chef, being instituted between the two teams.

Some essential tools from the extensive DevOps landscape that should form part of this effort include infrastructure monitoring tools, such as Nagios, a log analytics platform, and automation servers such as Jenkins.

Ensure buy-in

Ensuring buy-in among the technical team, from CIO level downwards, is critical to ensure that the transition to a continuous delivery is a successful one.

Coordination must take place not only between development and operations (the latter is often concerned that the process will simply result in more buggy code being passed on to them), but also between the technical team and other business functions such as management and executive leadership.

Through providing for the continuous delivery of updates, DevOps should ensure the speedy adaptability and pivot-ability of the software being developed. The changes being queued for implementation can be driven, and re-prioritized, by everybody from senior management to the customer success team. It’s important to have the entire organization at least aware of what the new philosophy means in practical terms for the product’s life-cycle and evolution.

Commit for the long haul

Achieving DevOps is a long term process. Although certain metrics and KPIs can be monitored, assessing progress towards a full or at least satisfactory implementation of the philosophy takes time to measure and achieve.

Setting expectations on both the development and operations teams ahead of the initiation of the process is also fundamental to preempting any surprises that may arise as the teams move towards working in closer unison and aligning their work practices.

Operations team-members will have to provide developers with frequent updates as to how their code is performing under real-world operating conditions as encountered by end users.

Developers, in turn, will have to pay closer attention to how their output will function in a Cloud-based, distributed environment. Certain skills, such as logging analyzing log data, may for the first time become a shared concern.

Implementing DevOps change management methodologies is a significant undertaking that requires making extensive changes to an organization’s development structure. Executed correctly, however, the benefits of embracing this new way of performing version delivery are impossible to deny and result in significantly improved delivery of updated software to end-users.

13 DevOps Influencers, Groups and Blogs You Need to Follow

Posted on by eugene evdokimov

With the DevOps movement making its mark on every major industry, everyone should be paying attention. Whether you are an Operations/DevOps engineer yourself or are head of business, you should be following these 13 DevOps practitioners and thought leaders to stay in the loop.

New monitoring and delivery methodologies are quickly making their way through every major industry, speeding software deployment, improving software quality, and taking care of release quality. To help both fellow DevOps practitioners and business owners learn more about this sometimes complicated and controversial subject, we’ve come up with a list of people you should follow in order to keep in the know. Here are the top 12 thought leaders and DevOps experts you should be following right now.  John Arundel

John Arundel

With a whopping 88.6 thousand followers, John Arundel, better known on Twitter as @bitfield, is one of the people you have to follow if you want to get the right tips and advice about DevOps practices. As an expert in Puppet, who’s also written several books on the subject, this web operations consultant has over two decades of system administrator experience. On his Twitter page, you’ll find plenty of his own tweets about DevOps and interesting retweets you wouldn’t have been able to find without him.

DevOps Guys

The DevOps Guys blog are experts in delivering practical engineering and consultancy solutions in order to transform and accelerate the way that organizations deliver software. The blog writers understand the ever changing culture and industry of DevOps and explain it perfectly to their readers.

2600: The Hacker Quarterly

Perfect for anyone interested in DevOps, 2600: The Hacker Quarterly Facebook page is all about the American seasonal publication by the same name. The well-known publication includes articles, many of which are written by the readers themselves, about hacking, technical systems, internet protocols, and more. As the Facebook page puts it, “If you read 2600, are interested in 2600, go to 2600 meetings, write for 2600, wish 2600 would publish your work, hate 2600, wrap fish in 2600, raided 2600 at Pentagon City Mall, hang out in #2600… this group is for you.”

Alison Gianotto

Hailing from San Diego, hacker, co-founder and CTO of Anyshare, Alison Gianotto or

@snipehead is followed by 28.4 thousand followers who live by her tips on technology, security and privacy issues. Her Twitter feed is all about her workflow for DevOps engineers and includes topics from her speeches at conferences.

Gene Kim

Gene Kim or @RealGeneKim is a thought leader when it comes to DevOps, and has 23.4 thousand followers to prove it. As the founder of Tripwire as well as a prolific author on all things DevOps, Kim is on top of all the industry trends and isn’t shy about sharing them with his audience. Kim is an award-winning expert and author. His passion for DevOps is contagious and will get you all the updates you need on information security, and IT Ops.

Jez Humble

jez humble

Jez Humble is followed by 24.3 thousand people who deem him a real thought leader when it comes to anything having to do with DevOps. As the co-author of “Continuous Delivery” and “Lean Enterprise”, this Berkeley School lecturer is one to watch if you are in search of links to resources for continuous delivery training and commentary. Humble also combines his take on social and economic justice in his tweets, adding more depth to his Twitter page.

Charity Majors

@mipsytipsy is a lady you should be following if you’d like to learn from her incredible experience designing and implementing full-stack architecture. As a startup co-founder in the infrastructure space, a database enthusiast, and “ops lady,” she will be able to give you a lot of insight into what it is to start a company that deals high scale production environments. You can check her out on an episode of The New Stack @ Scale Podcast: Velocity Meets Monitoring in Software.

Operations Israel

A group which is relatively small but definitely worth following is Operations Israel, high-quality discussions and top professionals are there 24/7 to assist with any Operations related topic, this is a more advanced group and might not fit professionals making their first steps in the Ops world.  

DevOps Reactions

devops reactions

With 18.6 thousand followers, DevOps Reactions Twitter page puts a hilarious spin on the otherwise technical subject through Tumblr “DevOps Reactions,” a stream of funny GIFs. These GIFs capture the tribulations of development and operations teams, and following this page is a real must for every DevOps practitioner.

Dev2ops Blog

dev2ops blog

If you’d like to get all the information you could possibly need from the thought leaders of the industry, the dev2ops blog is where you should be. This website will introduce you to several other great DevOps resources and even has its own podcast that hits on the main topics everyone is thinking about.

Codes Craft

codes craft

The Etsy.com blog, Codes Craft, pleases the mind as well as the eye with gorgeous fonts and pictures to keep readers coming back for more. The blog focuses on finding the best practices and examining a company from every possible direction. As the creators of the blog put it, “We talk about the tools we use, celebrate the experiments that worked and learn from the ones that went awry, always learning new things to improve our craft. With this blog, we plan to make some of those discussions public.”

DevOps SubReddit

The DevOps SubReddit page is a useful site that’ll help you find blog posts and articles that contribute to the DevOps community. Posts by members are constantly being put on the site so you can get as many inputs on current topics as possible. It is also interesting to read through the comments sections to enjoy a good DevOps-related discussion, and perhaps partaking in it as well.

The DevOps Group on LinkedIn

This LinkedIn group has over 32 thousand members, making it the most popular social media DevOps page out there. The members of the private group take part in discussions and the page constantly publishes blog posts and articles, many of which make the DevOps role easier to understand if you’re just starting out. Like the Reddit page, this too is a great discussion forum as well as an excellent way to meet fellow practitioners.

When it comes down to it, the right resources can make all the difference to your business. Sources of valuable information about new technologies and methodologies can be hard to come by, making the aforementioned pages that much more important. Make sure to follow them in order to learn more about new trends in the field. Once you start educating yourself and become more involved with the community, you’ll soon become an expert yourself.

We know there are a lot more out there help us out and send us your own lists.