Forem: Reza Piri

Top DevSecOps Tools of 2021

Reza Piri — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 16:32:42 +0000

By Reza Piri Devops December 17, 2021

INTRODUCTION

DevSecOps tools are designed to help teams integrate security within the workflow. It also helps expand DevOps and ensure businesses benefit from the advantages of DevSecOps.

Introduction
What is DevSecOps?
Benefits of DevSecOps tools

Reducing expenses
Security, monitoring and deployment checks from the beginning
Supporting transparency from the start of deployment
Secure by design
Ability to measure
Faster speed of recovery

Best DevSecOps tools of 2021
Open Source DevSecOps tools
Conclusion

WHAT IS DEVSECOPS?

DevSecOps is a term that comprises development, security and operations. As an embellishment of DevOps, DevSecOps encourages the inclusion of security during each phase of the development cycle. When utilizing DevSecOps best practices, security is baked into the development process, rather than being an add-on.

Because of increasing levels of security threats and the need for companies to comply with security policies, DevSecOps has become beneficial for businesses. The aim is to minimize risks by integrating security into DevOps processes. As an alternative to adding security at the end of the development process, DevSecOps highlights and addresses issues throughout the process. This is to save time, effort and money as well as enhance quality.

Collaboration is a key feature of DevSecOps. Security used to be the sole responsibility of a dedicated security team. However, DevSecOps shifts the boundaries, encouraging teams to work collaboratively and cohesively on each element of the development cycle.

Research indicates that developers outnumber security experts by about 100 to 1. Companies can capitalize on the expertise of developers and protect their systems and networks when integrating security with DevOps. This ultimately reduces the risk of security issues.

BENEFITS OF DEVSECOPS TOOLS

DevOps security tools are designed to help teams implement a strategy that covers development, IT operations and security. Using free DevSecOps tools and secure DevOps methodology, businesses can enjoy a host of benefits. Advantages of these tools include:

REDUCING EXPENSES

Most businesses operate on a budget. However, using a DevSecOps toolchain can help companies save money. It can do this by utilizing cost-effective development strategies and minimizing costs associated with addressing security risks.

It is beneficial to be able to spot and tackle security issues early in the development lifecycle. This will ultimately help eliminate problems towards the end. This could also cause delays and add the expense of repeating processes.

Controlling DevSecOps costs enables businesses to budget effectively. It reduces the risk of wasting money on addressing issues that may have been flagged earlier on.

SECURITY, MONITORING AND DEPLOYMENT CHECKS FROM THE BEGINNING

The primary aim of DevSecOps is to integrate development, operations and security. By using the top DevSecOps tools, businesses combine security and monitoring, development, operations and deployment from the beginning. This tactic reduces the risk of issues further down the line, lowering costs, enhancing security and speeding up the development process.

SUPPORTING TRANSPARENCY FROM THE START OF DEPLOYMENT "Supporting-transparency-from-the-start-of-deployment">

When security is built into the development lifecycle, security checks are applied transparently from the start of deployment. Security is visible and is a key component of the process. It is not a bolt-on, an extension or even an afterthought.

SECURE BY DESIGN

DevSecOps tools ensure that software development is secure by design. Instead of addressing security issues that could appear later in the process, or cram security within an existing DevOps strategy, DevSecOps should be baked in. This will ensure that products are designed with security and performance.

By developing secure products, teams can drastically reduce the risks of security problems and create a more efficient, cost-effective process. This is valuable because it frees up time for development teams to concentrate on priority tasks and ensures compliance.

ABILITY TO MEASURE

Performance monitoring and the ability to measure enable teams to adapt and adjust to improve the quality of products. It also enhances security and eliminates or modifies phases or processes that are inefficient or unsuitable. DevSecOps enables businesses to become more agile and adaptive, which is crucial in an ever-changing landscape.

FASTER SPEED OF RECOVERY

With an effective DevSecOps strategy, organizations can respond to incidents swiftly and can also recover faster. DevSecOps minimizes risks and provides opportunities to identify and react to security issues or weaknesses at the earliest possible stage. In the event of an incident, companies can react rapidly to minimize disruption.

BEST DEVSECOPS TOOLS OF 2021

Statistics suggest that 60% of rapid software development teams will implement DevSecOps in 2021, compared to 20% in 2019. There are multiple tools available to establish a DevSecOps pipeline. Here are some of the best DevSecOps tools of 2021:

Codacy: Codacy encourages teams to shift left as much as possible, identifying security issues in their infancy. This tool prioritizes high-quality automation to boost productivity and simplify development processes.
Acunetix: As an all-in-one rapid scanner, Acunetix allows developers to identify weaknesses at the earliest possible opportunity.
WhiteSource: WhiteSource automatically scans, monitors and tracks open source components to detect frailties.
NetSparker: NetSparker is a threat and weakness detector. It identifies vulnerabilities across a wide range of web applications and also offers an effective solution for desktops and online apps.
Gitlab: Gitlab aims to simplify the combination of development, security and operations. They do this by using a single application.
DataDog: Designed for the cloud era, DataDog is a SaaS platform, which covers monitoring, security and analytics.
Sumo Logic: A scalable cloud solution, Sumo Logic offers integrated log management and metrics tracking.
Splunk Enterprise: Splunk Enterprise helps businesses to supercharge efficiency by collecting, analyzing and using data from apps and security systems. This can provide insights to boost performance.

OPEN SOURCE DEVSECOPS TOOLS

Sonarqube: SonarSource developed Sonarqube, which is an open source tool. It facilitates seamless automation to detect bugs and other potential weaknesses and threats. It also offers continuous code monitoring.
Checkov: Checkov is an open source project for cloud applications and infrastructure. It is designed so developers can write more secure code by flagging weaknesses and misconfigurations in code files.
Shiftleft: ShiftLeft offers developers an early indication of risks. It can provide them with the opportunity to address issues rapidly and highlight new vulnerabilities.

Deciding which DevSecOps tools are right for your business will depend on several factors. These include the systems, networks and platforms your organization uses, your key objectives and the experience and expertise of your team. You should research different tools, seek expert advice and choose tools that align with the core focus of your business. Most DevOps professional services can help you tackle this process.

CONCLUSION

DevSecOps integrates security within the DevOps process. It also offers a cost-effective, innovative, efficient, high-quality alternative to tacking security onto existing DevOps strategies. Business owners can enjoy plenty of benefits by using top DevSecOps tools. However, it is important to consider both the pros and cons when choosing which tools to use.

DevOps Consultant Jobs and Where to Find Them

Reza Piri — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 16:00:28 +0000

By Reza Piri Devops December 17, 2021

DevOps professionals are in high demand. With more businesses looking to recruit employees with expertise in this area, consultants are a valuable addition to the team. The DevOps market is expected to grow by over 20% by 2026. In this guide, we’ll discuss what DevOps consultants do, how much they earn and where to look for DevOps Consultant Jobs.

DevOps consultant versus DevOps Engineer
What do DevOps consultants do?
What are the roles and responsibilities of DevOps consultants?
How much do DevOps consultants make?
Top 10 DevOps consultant job boards
Summary

DEVOPS CONSULTANT VERSUS DEVOPS ENGINEER

DevOps consultants are not the same as DevOps engineers. There are key differences in their roles and responsibilities. Engineers are concerned with the day-to-day running of operations. Whereas, consulting is more focused on solving specific issues, providing tailored recommendations for businesses and organizations and drawing up plans of action.

WHAT DO DEVOPS CONSULTANTS DO?

DevOps consultants work to improve operations and optimize DevOps outcomes. Business owners may hire external consultants for DevOps professional services or recruit for in-house roles. They can evaluate existing systems and cultures, make recommendations for changes and improvements, and also identify effective solutions.

This will help companies achieve key objectives and tackle specific problems for optimal software delivery. They work with clients to establish pain points and inefficiencies. They also implement strategies to streamline operations and engineer change.

Hiring a DevOps consultant can help business owners and leaders tackle existing issues and identify the best ways to move forward. However, once a consultant advises or recommends strategies and measures, it is up to the client to choose which path to go.

WHAT ARE THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF DEVOPS CONSULTANTS?

DevOps consultants have a diverse range of roles and responsibilities and they may work with a broad spectrum of clients. As the demand for these specialists increases, the pool of clients is expanding to cover an array of sectors and industries. Key roles and responsibilities for consultants include:

Analyzing existing strategies, tools and systems
Evaluating the client’s DevOps culture and environment
Liaising with clients to discuss primary aims and problems to solve
Establishing key objectives and pain points
Using DevOps tools and industry-standard methodologies to draw up tailored plans and roadmaps
Educating and training employees
Establishing intelligent, efficient infrastructures
Supervising architectural changes and designs
Facilitating growth in line with client objectives and KPIs (key performance indicators)

Many projects that consultants undertake will focus on identifying and responding to company issues. They will also suggest modifications and new strategies throughout the development lifecycle. Some consultants will stay in contact with the client to oversee, implement and manage changes.

HOW MUCH DO DEVOPS CONSULTANTS MAKE?

DevOps experts are in high demand, and as a result, salaries are increasing. Statistics suggest that the average salary for a DevOps consultant in the US is now $125,000 (source). Entry-level roles are usually advertised at $100,000-$140,000 but senior consultants have the potential to earn much more.

Salaries for more experienced DevOps consultants usually increase to around $140,000, with some professionals earning up to $170,000. Research indicates that salaries are highest in San Francisco (source).

With the demand for DevOps consultants on the rise wages are likely to rise in the coming years. The exact wage for a DevOps consultant will depend on the employer, the project and also the employment status of the individual. Some consultants are self-employed or freelance, while others have an annual salary. Some companies offer higher wages than others.

TOP 10 DEVOPS CONSULTANT JOB BOARDS

If you are a DevOps consultant, there are many options to explore when it comes to finding top DevOps jobs. Here are the top 10 job boards for DevOps consultant jobs:

Dice.com: Dice.com is an online job board and recruitment platform, which connects organizations and employers with talented tech professionals. Thousands of employers use Dice and it offers a wide range of features, including profile analysis and personalized recommendations.

Hired.com: Hired.com is a high-profile platform, which brings employers and job-seekers together. They specialize in engineering, DevOps and sales roles. Hired.com also advertises opportunities across the US and the UK and Ireland.

Angel.co: Angel.co specializes in start-up recruitment and focuses on development and tech roles in the US.

The Ladders: The Ladders is an exclusive recruitment platform, which is designed for professionals with salary expectations over $100,000. Job-seekers can search for suitable roles and create a profile, while recruiters and employers can find suitable candidates. There are over 250,000 screened jobs available.

Crunch Board: Crunch Board is a popular job board for tech startups and professionals who are hunting for new opportunities. It is possible to create both employee and employer accounts. The job board, which is updated constantly, advertises roles across the globe.

Tech Careers: Tech Careers is an easy to use, interactive job board. It enables job-seekers to search for vacancies, which suit their location, level of expertise, experience and job title. Featuring vacancies from top organizations, users can also sign up for alerts to ensure they hear about exciting roles first.

White Truffle: Established in 2011, White Truffle is a talent sourcing platform, which provides opportunities for both employers and employees. Job-seekers can search for the latest vacancies and employers and employees can benefit from innovative job matching technology.

Smashing Magazine Job Board: The Smashing Magazine job board helps developers and designers to find top jobs quickly and easily. It is suitable for both employers and employees. The board also advertises vacancies across the world.

Underdog: This is one of the best places to go for start-up jobs. Underdog is all about making it as easy as possible to find and apply for jobs. Most of the roles are remote or located in New York and San Francisco.

Tech Fetch: Tech Fetch is a US leading job portal. They provide employers with over 1 million tech resumes. It also has over 100,000 tech roles for job-seekers. Matching technology enables employers to access the top 10 candidates in just 30 seconds.

While there are plenty of job boards out there, you want to make sure your search is tailored for DevOps Consultant Jobs.

SUMMARY

DevOps consultants play an integral role in helping businesses solve issues. They help implement effective procedures, measures, tools and strategies throughout the development process. DevOps consulting is a varied role, which involves working with a wide range of clients.

DevOps consultants earn an average of $125,000 but there is potential to earn more. There are several innovative job boards available for employers looking to add to their team. As well as for consultants searching for a new challenge.

BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF OUTSOURCING DEVOPS

Reza Piri — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 21:48:08 +0000

Outsourcing DevOps has become increasingly common. In this guide, we’ll discuss the potential advantages and pitfalls of DevOps outsourcing.

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from outsourcing DevOps. However, there are challenges involved and it isn’t always the best option. In this guide, we’ll explore the potential advantages of outsourcing DevOps and determine whether DevOps outsourcing can be a success.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

What is DevOps outsourcing?
What you can expect from DevOps outsourcing
Benefits of outsourcing DevOps

Faster development
Access to a pool of DevOps experts
Enhanced security practices
Increased efficiency
Improved quality and flexibility

Challenges of outsourcing DevOps

Restructure of work culture
Demands strong teamwork
Requires expertise
Initially takes time

Summary
How Can Gennovacap Help My Company?

WHAT IS DEVOPS OUTSOURCING?

DevOps outsourcing relates to working with an external agency or individual freelancers to take care of DevOps. The aim of DevOps is to bring software development and IT operations and processes together to provide cohesive, efficient products and streamlined systems. DevOps covers development, IT operations, security and high-quality engineering.

Research suggests that DevOps outsourcing is becoming increasingly commonplace, as organizations look to benefit from skills they do not already have in-house. There is a global shortage of experts, which is driving demand.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM DEVOPS OUTSOURCING

Every business owner should consider the potential benefits and disadvantages of DevOps outsourcing before deciding whether or not to proceed. It is beneficial to know what to expect if you choose to outsource DevOps. The State of DevOps Report suggests that businesses that outsource DevOps can achieve the following results:

24x faster recovery from failures
3x lower change failure rate
22% less time spent on unplanned work and rework
0% time remediating security issues

BENEFITS OF OUTSOURCING DEVOPS

If you run a business and you’re looking to utilize or expand DevOps services, then you may be considering outsourcing DevOps by hiring expert DevOps consulting firms. Outsourcing offers a wide range of benefits for companies with varying requirements. Here are some of the primary benefits:

FASTER DEVELOPMENT

Time is of the essence in business. One of the key advantages of outsourcing DevOps is faster development, shorter development cycle, and continuous delivery of applications and services. When you work with an experienced agency or experts in the field of DevOps, you don’t have to start from scratch and it will save time and money. You can capitalize on the benefits of working with development teams that are well-versed in DevOps methodologies. Consultants who offer DevOps as a service achieve outstanding results in a short period of time.

If you can reduce time to market, your business can become more agile. Consequently, being agile will enable you to provide a better service for your customers. In turn, this creates and develops new and existing products that gain a competitive advantage.

ACCESS TO A POOL OF DEVOPS EXPERTS

One of the main challenges facing organizations that want to hire DevOps experts is a global shortage of talent. The demand for employees who have expertise in DevOps far outweighs the supply, which means that it is incredibly difficult to attract candidates. Outsourcing provides a solution.

Rather than competing against other companies to hire employees, businesses can access a pool of skilled, experienced, talented individuals through outsourcing. Outsourcing provides a hiring alternative which enables you to benefit from working with experts without adding to your hiring costs via recruitment and training.

Statistics indicate that the DevOps market has grown between 40% and 45% since 2016, but the number of engineers has not risen in tandem. If you were looking to hire experts to join your company, it is probable that it would take a long time to find certified devops engineers. Additionally, you would have competition hiring talent from other firms. Salaries are rising, which also means that hiring may not be a viable option for many organizations.

ENHANCED SECURITY PRACTICES

Additionally, security and compliance have never been more important for business owners. For companies that don’t have in-house IT or security teams, navigating DevOps security best practices is challenging. There are security risks and hazards lurking around every corner.

Enhanced security practices is another major benefit of DevOps outsourcing. If you choose to work with a service provider, experts can help you implement DevSecOps policies. They can also implement robust defenses in the cloud infrastructure to protect your applications and ensure your DevOps culture is aligned with security best practices.

INCREASED EFFICIENCY

Efficiency saves time, effort and money for organizations. Increasing efficiency can help businesses to cut costs, provide a superior service, boost team morale, and streamline processes which enhance productivity. Outsourcing DevOps is an effective means to supercharge development processes and operations.

When you work with a company that offers tailored DevOps services, you will be teaming up with experts who are aware of devops best practices. Most often, these firms have experience testing different solutions, ideas, and approaches to DevOps problem-solving. Dedicated DevOps teams work faster and they can produce high-quality products within a shorter time frame.

IMPROVED QUALITY AND FLEXIBILITY

Shorter, simplified development frameworks improve efficiency, but they also provide access to greater flexibility for organizations. With direct access to pools of talented AWS DevOps and Azure DevOps engineers, businesses can be more agile and adapt to new trends or ways of working. They can also bring products and services to the market faster. Outsourcing can also improve software quality because devops agencies utilize monitoring techniques along with quality assurance and rigorous testing to maintain the highest standards.

CHALLENGES OF OUTSOURCING DEVOPS

There are pros and cons of outsourcing DevOps. It’s wise to weigh up the risks and benefits before deciding whether outsourcing would work for your company. Although there are several advantages of outsourcing, there are also challenges to be aware of. These include:

RESTRUCTURE OF WORK CULTURE

DevOps is an umbrella term, which covers an expansive framework and an engineering culture. If you are outsourcing DevOps, your in-house engineering team has to adjust to different ways of working and embrace change. The challenge is overseeing a smooth transition and encouraging your employees to let the DevOps team to work collaboratively in-house to achieve a fluid work environment and optimal outcomes.

DEMANDS STRONG TEAMWORK

To benefit from outsourced DevOps, businesses need to be able to adapt and adjust and actively encourage and facilitate teamwork. In-house teams and external agencies need to work together to create and embody a culture and environment that supports cohesion. There needs to be give, as well as take, on both sides.

To maximize the chances of success, it is essential for teams to communicate openly through tools like Jira, Github, Gitlab, Slack, and Teams. Additionally, a solid DevOps framework should outline clear engineering objectives and to explore the benefits and challenges in detail. As a business owner, it is also crucial to take your time when choosing a DevOps outsourcing company. Get to know the devops consulting representatives. It’s a best practice to discuss goals, targets, read testimonials, and look for agencies that share the same values. Lastly, find a provider who offers a personalized service.

REQUIRES EXPERTISE

Outsourcing can be incredibly advantageous for businesses that don’t have in-house devops experts. However, it does require a certain level of software engineering expertise. To benefit from working with a provider, you need to be able to outline requirements and explain what you expect from the company. It’s also beneficial to have sufficient devops knowledge to monitor progress and interpret results to make sure that you are on track.

INITIALLY TAKES TIME

Building strong relationships and integrating teams of DevOps engineers within on-site departments takes time. It is essential to go into the outsourcing process with realistic expectations. Additionally, being patient as work with new models and to create a culture that facilitates collaborative work with outsourcing companies.

When you meet with representatives and compare offers, look for agencies that prioritize communication and interaction, as well as offering access to skilled experts. While outsourcing can help you shorten development cycles and boost efficiency, it can take time to establish relationships and restructure the work culture.

SUMMARY

DevOps engineers are highly sought-after, with a global skills shortage and an increased desire to access DevOps services driving demand. DevOps outsourcing services offers an array of benefits for companies, but there are also challenges to consider. Hiring DevOps engineers can be costly and it’s often difficult to find suitable candidates and beat offers from competitors.

If you outsource, you can access talent pools without hiring new employees. DevOps outsourcing increases efficiency, shortens the development cycle, enhances security and provides superior quality and flexibility. However, it can take time to build strong and cohesive teams.

HOW CAN GENNOVACAP HELP MY COMPANY?

Gennovacap is offers devops as a service and managed cloud services. Our nearshore teams can work closely with your in house development teams to assess devops practices, create devops strategies, and implement best devops practices to ensure your software engineering success.

Cloud Migration Benefits and Challenges

Reza Piri — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 19:46:26 +0000

A growing number of organizations are switching to cloud services. In this guide, we’ll outline the benefits and challenges of cloud migration.

By Reza Piri Cloud November 17, 2021

Cloud computing has boomed in the last decade and cloud adoption is at the top of every tech exec’s to do list. More and more companies are considering migrating to the cloud, but what does cloud migration mean, what does the process involve, and what are the benefits and challenges? In this article we will cover this topic and explain how Gennovacap can help your company with cloud migration services.

Introduction: What is Cloud Migration
Types of Cloud Migration

Software as a Service
Platform as a Service
Infrastructure as a Service

What Tools are Used in Cloud Migration
AWS Cloud Migration Tools

Azure Migration Tool
Corent Surpass Cloud Migration
Cloudhealth Cloud Migration by VMWare
Densify
Carbonite

What are the Benefits of Cloud Migration

Optimized Costs
Flexibility for Employees
Scalability
Enhanced Data Security
Faster Deployment
Built-in Backup and Recovery Capabilities

What Are The Challenges of Cloud Migration?

Integration Strategy
Data Security Management
Proper Employment Training
Potential Ambiguous Costs

How can Gennovacap help my company?

INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS CLOUD MIGRATION?

Cloud migration is the process of moving digital assets, such as data, IT resources and applications to cloud infrastructures. In most cases, businesses interested in cloud migration want to modernize systems. They want to move data from traditional infrastructures, computer rooms, IT suites and data centers to the cloud.

Statistics suggest that cloud computing is growing at pace, with almost 95% of enterprises already making use of cloud services through cloud migration strategies. By 2025, it is estimated that cloud servers will store more than 100 zettabytes of data.

TYPES OF CLOUD MIGRATION

The three main types of cloud migration are software as a service, platform as a service and infrastructure as a service.

SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE (SAAS)

Software as a Service is a form of cloud migration that involves using software provided over the Internet. With SaaS, we lift the software from data centers and move them to workloads on the cloud.

PLATFORM AS A SERVICE (PAAS)

Platform as a Service (PaaS) provides a blank canvas for DevOps engineers to create, modify and scale apps with cloud native infrastructure. This method removes all worry about infrastructure, storage limitations or compatible operating systems. Thus, your software becomes unstoppable and highly scalable.

INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE (IAAS)

Infrastructure as a Service involves relocating infrastructure to the cloud. The most common example of this approach is leasing a server through a cloud provider. The provider retains ownership of the server and is responsible for management, maintenance and updates. Examples of IaaS include Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure and AWS.

WHAT TOOLS ARE USED IN CLOUD MIGRATION?

The amount of data we produce and use is increasing year on year. Studies suggest that by 2020, we were creating 2.5 quintillion bytes per day. When dealing with large amounts of data, it is beneficial to utilize dedicated cloud migration tools to facilitate a seamless transition. There are several cloud migration tools available, including:

AWS CLOUD MIGRATION TOOLS

With the AWS cloud migration tool, you can transfer data into and out of the cloud rapidly, undertake data migration and use continuous data replication across different places. This tool also targets efficiency and provides protection against downtime for apps that are reliant on cloud function.

AZURE MIGRATION TOOL

The Azure migration tool provides integrated migration capabilities, which track migration processes and facilitate the smooth transfer of digital assets. Users only pay for the services they need, which makes this an effective solution for businesses.

CORENT SURPASS CLOUD MIGRATION

This tool is known for offering speedy conversion processes to turn apps into SaaS applications.

CLOUDHEALTH CLOUD MIGRATION BY VMWARE

The Cloudhealth tool offers reporting and analytic features to align infrastructure with company objectives, operations and requirements. It also enables individuals or teams to identify new measures and implement new policies to optimize performance.

DENSIFY

Densify is an excellent tool for business owners and IT departments that are considering multiple cloud services and providers. This tool enables you to make comparisons before you reach a decision, and it also offers a free trial.

CARBONITE

Carbonite is famed for its protective capabilities, with one of the primary aims is to prevent downtime and data loss.

Picture credit: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/iot-internet-of-things-network-3337536/

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF CLOUD MIGRATION?

Surveys suggest that 68% of CIOs ranked migrating to the cloud, moving to hybrid cloud, or expanding cloud services as the most significant driver for IT spending in 2021. Migrating data and applications to the cloud offers a raft of advantages for organizations across all sectors. Key benefits of cloud migration include:

OPTIMIZED COSTS

Most businesses run on tight budgets. Migrating to the cloud is an effective means of saving money and reducing IT expenses while benefiting from access to advanced systems and services. When you work with a cloud provider, you pay for the services you use. You also have access to the perks without kitting out an IT department or hiring a team of IT experts.

If you choose to migrate to the cloud, you can divert funding that would have gone to maintenance, upgrades and updates to other departments or development projects. But, if you switch to cloud computing, your provider will cover upkeep costs, leaving you with more money to invest in innovation or growth. Thus, small, medium, and large businesses can benefit from streamlining outgoings and saving on IT by optimizing costs through cloud migration.

FLEXIBILITY FOR EMPLOYEES

Remote work was becoming more commonplace before the pandemic, but the Covid-19 crisis has undoubtedly impacted the way businesses operate and where employees work. Research indicates that in 2020, over 70% of US employees were working from home. One of the most significant benefits of cloud migration for company directors and employees is greater flexibility using cloud based systems.

Whether you manage remote workers or you have employees who combine working from home with going into the office, the cloud offers a range of benefits. With access to cloud applications and services, employees can work almost anywhere. Additionally, business owners don’t have to worry about a decline in productivity or efficiency if employees are forced to change plans.

In the aftermath of the pandemic, flexibility will be instrumental for employers, as studies show that it is now a driving factor for the majority of employees. Many employees (51%) now consider flexibility more important than salary. By embracing innovation and taking advantage of the cloud, businesses can offer more flexibility for their workforce. This will benefit existing employees, as well as helping organizations to attract top talent.

SCALABILITY

Cloud computing is incredibly flexible and adaptable, making it suitable for businesses that are scaling up. Furthermore, automated cloud resources scale down when demand falls. Organizations can quickly scale up in line with growth and increased workloads. The process is much simpler and faster than traditional methods.

Without the cloud, an IT department would have to buy and set up servers, invest in network equipment and ensure they had the right software licenses. With the cloud, companies can access the resources they need as and when their requirements change. Being able to scale up rapidly enables business owners to also capitalize on market growth and opportunities to take advantage of increased demand for products and services.

ENHANCED DATA SECURITY

Data security should be a priority for every business. If you migrate to the cloud and you work with a reputable provider, you can benefit from enhanced security knowing sensitive data is safe. You can also take advantage of compliance guarantees. In addition to security measures and updates, the cloud also offers enhanced safety because there is no risk of physical theft.

FASTER DEPLOYMENT

The cloud provides businesses with the opportunity to be more agile, which is crucial in the 21st century. With cloud computing, you can enjoy faster deployment and enhanced performance. You can respond to new or changing trends rapidly and you can also develop, test and implement applications swiftly.

BUILT-IN BACKUP AND RECOVERY CAPABILITIES

It is no secret that downtime is costly, both in terms of financial losses and damage to your reputation. According to Gartner, the average cost of downtime is estimated at $5,600 per minute. The cloud has built-in backup and recovery capabilities to protect company reputations and enable businesses to minimize risks and disruptions.

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF CLOUD MIGRATION?

While there are several benefits to cloud migration, there are also challenges.

INTEGRATION STRATEGY

It is common for businesses to enter into the cloud migration process without a clear strategy. To execute a seamless transition, it is essential to have detailed, robust plans in place.

DATA SECURITY MANAGEMENT

Data security and compliance can be a challenge because cloud providers typically utilize a shared responsibility structure, which relies on the client to implement measures to protect their data. The provider will assume responsibility for the infrastructure but not the individual workloads.

PROPER EMPLOYMENT TRAINING

Cloud migration represents a change in the way businesses work and employees may not be familiar with cloud applications and capabilities. Providing training can also help employees to adjust and ensure they are able to make the most of the benefits of cloud computing.

POTENTIAL AMBIGUOUS COSTS

While cloud migration can be a cost-saving measure for organizations, cost of services can occasionally be difficult to estimate. Every business should outline KPIs before migration and research fees so that they have an accurate idea of how much services will cost on an ongoing basis.

HOW CAN GENNOVACAP HELP MY COMPANY?

Gennovacap’s devops advisory services and cloud migration services are the bedrock of our cloud consulting services. Our cloud services team can help you successfully migrate to any public cloud environment.

The Best Infrastructure as Code Tools For 2021

Reza Piri — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 20:18:02 +0000

Infrastructure as code tools manage and provision infrastructure via code. Here are some of the best IaC tools for 2021.

SUMMARY

When it comes to cloud infrastructure, making something consistently replicable is extremely valuable for different reasons. Infrastructure as Code Tools can remove the manual process in a cloud environment with automation.

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Summary
Legacy IT Infrastructure
What is infrastructure as code?
Managing Infrastructure as Code
What is code configuration management?

Puppet
SaltStack
Chef

What are infrastructure as code tools?

AWS CloudFormation
Google Cloud Deployment Manager
Azure Resource Manager
Terraform
Pulumi

Contact Gennovacap for more information

LEGACY IT INFRASTRUCTURE

In data centers, engineering teams would traditionally have to manually configure additional servers and databases for different application environments. Infrastructure as Code tools automatically scale up cloud resources as needed. Furthermore, they substantially reduce the number of hours it takes to manage public cloud resources. Ultimately it removes the manual process of managing IT for the engineering team.

WHAT IS INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE?

Infrastructure as code (IaC) involves configuring and managing infrastructure in a descriptive model.Think of IaC as the source code to a cloud environment in AWS, GCP, or Azure. If you use the same code every time, you should get the exact same cloud environment outcome.

IaC is a key practice of DevOps and was initially used as a solution for environmental drift. Over time it evolved to deliver a number of tangible benefits.

IaC helps automate the infrastructure deployment process by making deploying applications and cloud resources consistent, repeatable, and predictable. It greatly speeds up a number of processes, minimizes risk, and helps with configuration consistency.

MANAGING INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE

It’s a common DevOps practice to manage infrastructure as code tools using version control systems like Gitlab or Github. In years past, managing cloud resources would traditionally require a lot of manual labor or a whole team of IT engineers. Managing IT resources made it hard to scale and maintain all of the different environments.

This is why Infrastructure as Code tools are important to engineering and DevOps teams. Having replicable cloud configuration tools can easily reproduce and deploy resources automatically to scale your application and services. By doing so, your applications and infrastructure will be able to increase performance and handle more customers.

WHAT IS CODE CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT?

Code configuration management refers to the one true source of the configuration items to be managed. It’s a key component in DevOps and represents the source of configuration items for the applications and cloud services. Code Configuration management uses source codes, binaries, servers, and tools.

PUPPET

Puppet help engineers deliver software. It uses a Ruby-based DSL that can define the desired end state of your infrastructure, then enforces the desired state and applies changes as needed. It can integrate with both AWS and Azure, making it a great choice for deployment on multiple cloud services.

SALTSTACK

SaltStack offers powerful infrastructure automation tools but also focuses on security and network within the organization. It’s an open-source tool based on Python that is simple to use. Saltstack is especially useful when troubleshooting common infrastructure issues.

CHEF

One of the most popular configuration management tools used today is Chef. It uses terms like “recipes” and “cookbooks” to describe the different configurations and how they are deployed.

WHAT ARE INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE TOOLS?

IaC tools generally refer to software that helps in the deployment and configuration of cloud infrastructure. They automate various processes when companies are looking to create replicable environments. However, they can also focus on configuring the software and systems within the infrastructure.

AWS CLOUDFORMATION

Similar to Terraform and allows for the automated deployment of servers and other infrastructure. However, AWS Cloud Formation is much more deeply integrated with the AWS ecosystem. There are a large number of Cloud Formation templates available on AWS and across the web.

AWS Cloud Formation templates even allows you to deploy infrastructure stacks across different AWS accounts and regions. This makes AWS Cloud Formation a great option for international businesses.

GOOGLE CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MANAGER

Google Cloud Deployment Manager is an infrastructure as code tools specific to the creation of Google Cloud resources. Like AWS Cloud Formation, Google has training options and many cloud formation templates prepared and ready to use.

AZURE RESOURCE MANAGER

Azure Resource Manager allows you to create templates that hold infrastructure and dependency information. It organizes resources into different groups that can be deployed or deleted with ease. You also have access to a robust permissions system that manages the control access to resources.

TERRAFORM

Terraform is an infrastructure as code tool that allows you to describe your infrastructure as code. It lets users to create “execution plans” that outline what happens when the code is run. It also builds graphs of resources while automating changes with little human interaction. Terraform also has its own DSL known as the Hashicorp Configuration Language.

PULUMI

Pulumi is different in that it doesn’t require the user to learn a DSL, JSON, or YAML. Instead, it allows you to define your cloud infrastructure using a development language of your choice, such as DotNet or Java. This means you can leverage the features of those specific development languages.

CONTACT GENNOVACAP FOR MORE INFORMATION

If you’re looking to utilize infrastructure as code tools in your business, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with Gennovacap for DevOps consulting. We can help you reduce costs, deploy faster, strengthen security, and improve developer happiness for your engineering team. Simply contact us today and we’d be happy to schedule an assessment.

What is AWS Managed Services?

Reza Piri — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 19:12:28 +0000

Amazon Web Services can help you efficiently operate and manage your company's infrastructure, but what can AWS managed services offer you?

Managed Cloud Services have become a staple in recent years for many businesses. If you run open-source systems such as Kubernetes there are clear advantages of outsourced management of cloud resources that can’t be ignored. One such cloud service is AWS Managed Services (AMS).

AMS is a managed service provider (MSP) run by Amazon. It handles infrastructure management and cloud operations in an efficient management platform with service support. The service is typically aimed at large enterprises that are looking for a simplified way to migrate their data centers or use staff augmentation to operate their cloud systems. This managed service helps automate cloud operations so you can focus on software development. Using AWS managed services is a win / win.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

What is AWS Managed Services?
The benefits of AWS Managed Services

Reduces operating costs
Fast response times
Scalability and flexibility
Disaster recovery
Predictable costs

Tiers of AWS Managed Services
AMS Services
How much do AWS managed services cost?
How can Gennovacap help my Company?

WHAT IS AWS MANAGED SERVICES?

A managed service typically refers to the management of a particular service by a third party that is not within your company. In this case, it refers to the use of Amazon’s web services, infrastructure tools, and cloud engineers through Amazon’s Managed Cloud Services.

The purpose of this is to provide you with additional support 24 x 7 x 365 with robust monitoring and services. This is so you can keep an eye on the health of your workflow and servers. Additionally, AMS helps respond to incidents and manage your infrastructure. It typically includes maintenance tasks such as keeping the entire system updated and patched correctly. It may include specific automated tasks such as application deployment and ongoing management of pipelines.

THE BENEFITS OF AWS MANAGED SERVICES

There are a number of benefits to using AWS managed services.

REDUCES OPERATING COSTS

When outsourcing your cloud-managed services, you could greatly reduce your overall operating and networking maintenance costs. This is because you don’t need to hire a dedicated staff member to monitor and maintain your web services and cloud-based applications and systems. Managing infrastructure requires a specialized skill set which can be expensive for small to mid-sized businesses. If your network is relatively simple and your use for cloud-based systems and processes is straightforward, then AMS is for you.

With an AWS managed services provider, outsourcing becomes a more viable and effective option that can save you thousands each year. It makes it much more affordable than an in-house IT department and can help sustain your business’s growth.

FAST RESPONSE TIMES

A huge reason to consider AWS managed services is for the quick response times from specialists. Whether you’re looking to ask a question about optimizing your AWS cloud costs or need constant monitoring and alerts about the condition of your infrastructure, you’ll always have access to a trained technician.

This gives added peace of mind to many business owners and technology departments and ensures that the software and hardware side of your company is always functioning correctly.

SCALABILITY AND FLEXIBILITY

Cloud-managed service providers offer businesses a flexible and scalable option for managing their services and infrastructure. Some smaller businesses only need a single technician to help them manage their cloud-based functions. However, others may need a dedicated team to help them scale their cloud services to accommodate rapid business growth.

With flexible solutions that are available for any business size and technological requirement, you’re sure to find a cost friendly managed services provider that meets your needs. There are multiple different payment options and plans available, and you can always upgrade or downgrade your service as required.

DISASTER RECOVERY

Businesses will eventually become so reliant on cloud services that any kind of disaster could drastically affect their business. These cloud-based services need protection from hiccups. Should a hardware failure or a physical problem in the data center happen, then it’s important to have the right backup solution to preserve your data. Ensuring it can still be accessed in times of failure. This is critical to having a successful cloud operation.

Disaster recovery solutions in AWS Managed Services offer resilience and help maintain business continuity. Any good AWS managed services provider will have backup solutions that offer plenty of redundancy to give added peace of mind and confidence.

PREDICTABLE COSTS

Cloud-managed services offer a predictable cost every month and every time the service is used. With a consistent monthly bill and no surprises, you know exactly what to expect from the service you sign up for. If you need more features or assistance, then you simply increase the amount you pay and receive a more comprehensive service.

TIERS OF AWS MANAGED SERVICES

The two main AWS managed services offered are; AWS Managed Services Accelerate and AWS Managed Services Advanced.

AWS Managed Services Accelerate offers features to augment your team’s capabilities for operating AWS workloads. It offers more flexibility to choose a level of operational support that best meets your long-term needs and goals.

On the other hand, AWS Managed Services Advanced offers a more comprehensive suite of services. It’s an operational plan that offers preventative controls via a change management system within an AWS managed landing zone. This provides a fully operational solution but trades some flexibility for increased operational rigor that aims to protect critical business applications.

While the services offered by both are mostly similar, there are a few key differences to keep in mind. The Accelerate service does not offer landing zone and account operations, provisioning and change management, and IT service management integration.

AMS SERVICES

AMS augments your team’s capabilities for operating AWS resources through a variety of service offerings. From a fully managed service desk managing incidents to logging, monitoring, and alerting, AMS has you covered.

Additionally, the AMS team will work with your finance team to help optimize cloud costs. This can help to get the most out of your cloud investment. AMS also offers various SLA tiers and certified cloud architects to help with the operational challenges of cloud computing.

Here is a complete list of the AMS Services:

Service Desk
Operational Monitoring
Backup Management
Cost Optimization
Logging
Reporting
Service Delivery
Patching
Access Management
Security Management

HOW MUCH DO AWS MANAGED SERVICES COST?

The cost of AWS managed services depends heavily on the type of services you’re looking for and at what scale. AWS Managed Services offers you a pay-as-you-go approach for pricing for cloud services. With AWS you pay only for the individual services you need for as long as you use them. The price of AWS Managed Services is calculated based on the number of instances and the usage fees of all other AWS services within the accounts AMS manages.

HOW CAN GENNOVACAP HELP MY COMPANY?

Gennovacap’s Devops Professional Services practice is the bedrock of modern cloud services. Our devops services and managed cloud services team can help you setup and run your AWS Managed Services. We can also help also automate and scale cloud infrastructure while ensuring continuous delivery and continuous integration for your applications. In addition to utilizing our best practices for cloud, our managed cloud services team can help you run your AWS Cloud Infrastructure while lowering your AWS cost.

DEVOPS AUTOMATION AND DEVOPS BEST PRACTICES

Reza Piri — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 12:55:33 +0000

Gennovacap explains how devops automation and devops best practices can help cut costs, deploy apps faster, and achieve 99.9% uptime.

SUMMARY

In this guide we analyze a common problem with devops that startup companies face as they scale up their applications. At Gennovacap, we formulate devops automations using our devops best practices that help our customers scale to the moon. The business results from our devops automation resolves scalability issues, reduces cloud costs, and improves software delivery 6X – 10X times faster.

To encapsulate these learnings, Gennovacap decided to share our devops best practices with interested technical and business leaders. The following strategy proposes a well architected solution with a technical guide and benefits for businesses who choose this solution.

Summary
Tech Debt in Devops
Fast and cheap Devops – the Growth Killer
Our Devops Automation and Managed Cloud Services Practices
Devops Automation Benefits
How Can Gennovacap’s Devops Best Practices Help My Company?
Devops Automation Case Study
- Devops Challenges: Slow releases, Unstable Deployments, and Service Disruptions
- Application Challenges: Memory Leaks and Auto Scaling Issues
- Solution: Resilient Cloud Architecture
- Solution: Devops Automation Tools and Cloud Resources
- Technical Guide: Devops Automation and Devops Best Practices
- Results: Saved $5400 /month, Released 15X Faster, and Reached 99.9% Uptime

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes

TECH DEBT IN DEVOPS

Over the past 10 years, Gennovacap’s team has been a part of shipping software for technology companies. We’ve seen first hand how underrated devops is during the early stages of product development. A good majority of startup companies spend 80% of their development cycles shipping features and spend the other 20% patching bugs.

At the early stage, startups choose deployment tools like Jenkins or Heroku. These deployment tools are good to start but don’t scale efficiently with operations and certainly aren’t built for automation. The tech debt and costs incurred from these tools grows as the applications grow. If a company’s customer base doubles in one year, then devops automation becomes a critical strategy to achieve the high growth and scale. This is where we can help you with our devops best practices and devops automation strategies.

FAST AND CHEAP DEVOPS – THE GROWTH KILLER

There’s an old saying in software development that goes something like, “Fast, good, or cheap – pick two.” Anyone who has ever built software has felt the pressure of weighing the opposing forces of features, speed and cost against each other.

Startup companies usually choose fast and cheap for their early stage devops strategy and this is why they choose Heroku or Jenkins. It’s smarter at that early stage to get the product launched and into customers hands to iterate quickly. However, when success catches up to you, you need a feature rich devops process to improve development and product quality. At Gennovacap, we focus on quality with each devops iteration so that our customers can reach scaling goals, deploy features faster, and achieve high growth.

OUR DEVOPS AUTOMATION AND MANAGED CLOUD SERVICES PRACTICES

Last year, Gennovacap put together a case study covering Cloud Cost Optimization using AWS Devops: How an AI company saved 90% on cloud costs. CTOs at software companies always want to know how we did it. How did we save a company $18,000 / month using our devops best practices?

The answer is not simple. In fact, it’s a lengthy process involving operations, code repositories, deployments, network, storage, pipelines, and databases in the cloud. At Gennovacap we break these steps into these devops best practice areas:

Devops Consulting

Upgrade the application build process, to make it ready for running on Kubernetes (AWS EKS) as a Docker container, by following the 12-factor app methodology.
Adopt Infrastructure as Code practice for managing and evolving cloud resources, leveraging industry standard, cloud-agnostic tools and processes.

Infrastructure as code
Platform as code
Configuration as code
Policy as code

Create CI/CD Processes for consistently and reliably building and deploying managed artifacts. See our latest article on 11 Open Source Kubernetes CI CD Tools to Improve Your Devops

Managed Cloud Services

24x7x365 support, continuous monitoring, and incident response for AWS Resources, GCP Resources, or Azure Resources.

Logging
Monitoring
Alerting
Tracing

Security and Disaster Recovery Plans

Ongoing devops consulting

Security patches, software upgrades, infrastructure maintenance

DEVOPS AUTOMATION BENEFITS

By implementing devops automation using these devops best practices, every company we consult for can achieve benefits like:

Reduced Cloud Costs
Faster Releases
Compliance
Harden Security
99.9% Uptime

In the remainder of this article, we examine a case which lists out some of the devops automation tools and reveals a basic cloud architecture for devops automation.

HOW CAN GENNOVACAP’S DEVOPS BEST PRACTICES HELP MY COMPANY?

In the course of working with clients, we documented every issue and have created a series of devops best practices. From the devops best practices, we compiled a case from an existing client who faced scaling problems with their existing devops setup on AWS.

In this case we break down the devops automation tools and managed support strategies we put in place for this startup company. By implementing these devops best practices, the client lowered costs $5400/month, deployed 15X faster, and reached a 99.9% uptime.

DEVOPS AUTOMATION CASE STUDY

COMPANY PROFILE

Founded: 2012

Company Market: B2B SaaS Startup

Customers: Globally focused small and medium sized businesses with regional branches of multinational companies.

Cloud costs: $9,000 / month

APPLICATION STACK

Ruby on Rails
PostgreSQL
Background Jobs
Redis
Multi-tenant SaaS

CLOUD SERVICES

AWS OpsWorks
AWS Certificate Manager
RDS
EC2 (Ubuntu Linux)
Classic Load Balancer
CloudWatch Logs and Alarms

APPLICATION AND CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE: VANILLA RUBY ON RAILS AND AWS EC2

The startup company built their software on a very vanilla ruby software stack utilizing PostgreSQL on AWS RDS and EC2 instances.

DEVOPS CHALLENGES: SLOW RELEASES, UNSTABLE DEPLOYMENTS, AND SERVICE DISRUPTIONS

They deployed the software on an early version of AWS Ops Work which did not include any CI/CD tools. As a result, the lack of modern CI/CD technology with Ops Work caused release cycles to be very slow and unstable. Above all, their engineering team needed to focus on the core product instead of triaging scaling issues due. To sum up, here are the issues they faced:

Older cloud technology / devops tools caused devops process bottleneck
Rising cloud costs – $9,000 / month
2 days / week used to deploy and stabilize code
Need additional support to handle IT related issues (servers, maintenance, security, upgrades)

APPLICATION CHALLENGES: MEMORY LEAKS AND AUTO SCALING ISSUES

In addition to the IT and Devops problems, the multi-tenant SaaS application contained fundamental problems, like memory leaks. The memory leaks required the engineering team to add additional EC2 instances every week after each deployment. As a result, once they fixed the leaks, they would have to spin the servers back down to keep costs low.

Further, they did not have autoscaling to handle large API requests, which often caused service disruptions for customers. In short, their devops needed a serious upgrade and they also needed a flexible auto scaling option for their application.

SOLUTION: RESILIENT CLOUD ARCHITECTURE

The devops automation tools, cloud infrastructure, and application architecture proposal we chose for this startup company included: Terraform, Gitlab, AWS Codebuild, AWS Code Deploy, AWS EKS, AWS ECS, AWS EC2 Auto Scaling Spot Fleet, and numerous Kubernetes tools with monitoring and alerting.

SOLUTION: DEVOPS AUTOMATION TOOLS AND CLOUD RESOURCES

The following is a complete list all the AWS cloud resources and devops automation tools needed to solve the scaling problems, address the application issues, and provide monitoring and support:

Containers and Microservices

EKS
ECS
Docker
Kubernetes

Identity and Access

IAM with RBAC

Continuous Delivery and Continuous Integration

Codebuild
Gitlab

Infrastructure as code

Cloud Formation
Terraform
Systems Manager
Config

Monitoring and logging

Cloud Watch
Grafana
Prometheus

Version Control

Gitlab

Databases

Network Services

Auto Scaling
Load Balancers
VPC

DNS

Route 53

Storage

Certificates

ACM certificate

Servers

EC2
EC2 Spot Instances

TECHNICAL GUIDE: DEVOPS AUTOMATION AND DEVOPS BEST PRACTICES

To implement the full devops automation strategy, we took the following steps listed below. This strategy follows all of our devops best practices. For brevity’s sake, we will not dive into how to configure all these components and systems in this article. If you’re interested in receiving the technical devops automation guides, please sign up for our newsletter in the form below.

Upgrade the application build process, to make it ready for running on Kubernetes (AWS EKS) as a Docker container, by following the 12-factor app methodology:

Minimum impact on existing development workflows
Immutable images that can be stored in an artifact repository
Ready to run on Kubernetes
Optimal resource usage
Native IAM integration for fine-grained EKS service roles
Native integration with AWS CloudWatch Logs log shipper

Adopt Infrastructure as Code practice for managing and evolving cloud resources, leveraging industry standard, cloud-agnostic tools and processes:

Use Terraform as an Infrastructure as Code tool to manage changes in a controlled way, leveraging Git as the source of truth and collaboration tool
Changes applied via CI/CD system (see next topic), avoiding hard-to-track manual changes applied via AWS console or API
Self-document changes via Git history

CI/CD Processes for consistently and reliably building and deploying managed artifacts:

Enable and set up build and test pipelines in - Jenkins or another build platform (e.g., AWS CodeBuild or GitLab) using modern standards and patterns
Custom workflows for enabling live test environments for each development branch, that can be automatically disposed of as soon as testing is done
Allow developers to also make and propose changes via PRs (pull requests), that can then be automatically applied to the system once approved
Autoscaling workers for the build system for reduced costs and faster builds
Implement monitors for the entire CI/CD process, that can be used to inform the status of events of interest for developers and OPS operators, and integrate them with team communication tools, like Slack
GitOps Continuous Delivery pipeline: Releases for multiple environments (dev, prod, etc.) Controlled release rollouts (for prod) Database migration controller Deployment Rollback mechanism Kubernetes cluster add-ons (DNS manager, load balancer ingress controller, among others)

Managed AWS Services and Resources:

EKS Cluster setup for each environment
Auto Scaling setup for different node pools (application and delayed job workers)
Docker image Container Registry with automatic security assessments for vulnerabilities Shared Application Load Balancers for decreasing costs on both prod and development environments
AWS SSO integration with EKS via IAM and RBAC
Redis ElastiCache
RDS
Fine grained IAM policies for DNS records, S3 buckets and Service Roles
EKS integration with CloudWatch Logs, for both app and infrastructure layers
CloudWatch alarms for monitoring key platform components
ACM certificate integration for public-facing and internal-facing components
Automated DNS management with Route53 and EKS
VPC endpoints for private connections between the VPC and supported AWS resources

Security and Disaster Recovery:

Segmented VPC with isolated subnets and NAT gateways spawned across multiple availability zones for increased reliability
CloudTrail integration with CloudWatch Logs
Integrated secrets management between AWS resources, CI/CD systems, applications and Terraform
Backup AWS account setup
Enforcement of Multi-Factor authentication and password rollouts
SSO authentication for multi-account access
AWS Organizations setup (Backup and Main AWS accounts), including consolidated billing
Fine-grained policies for S3 access, DNS management, load balancer registration and certificate renewals
Leverage in-house tools or managed services like - Skeddly for managing database backups and S3 data replication on another AWS account
Extensive use of in-transit and at-rest data encryption mechanisms for inter-resource communications
Continuous and automatic rollout of security updates for all EC2 instances
Optional use of AWS Trusted Advisor, for extra security recommendations and reports
ClientVPN setup to provide access to internal resources
WAF integration via Terraform

Ongoing operational support:

Add an on-call site reliability engineer for monitoring and support
Prometheus and Grafana stacks for analyzing cluster and applications past data, providing details that can be further used to tweak and optimize different operational aspects
Documentation and playbooks for common and potential issues
Alert routing setup for on-call engineers
Optional: AWS DevOps guru for insights and early fault detection and notification

RESULTS: SAVED $5400 /MONTH, RELEASED 15X FASTER, AND REACHED 99.9% UPTIME

By employing a cloud cost optimization strategy and migrating to AWS EC2 Spot Instances, we minimized costs and obtained a 60% cost savings for the client. Additionally, they were able to continuously deploy the application as many times a day as possible.

Furthermore, the alerting and monitoring solution notified the developers when the application failed from memory leaks. The engineering team solved application problems quicker and bugs were immediately triaged. With more stable releases, enhanced monitoring, and IT support for their infrastructure this enabled them to reach 99.9% uptime.

Cloud Cost Optimization:

Before Devops: $9000 / month
After Devops: $3600 / month

Released Software 15X Faster:

Before Devops: 1 time / week
After Devops: 3 times / day

99.9% Uptime:

Before Devops: 97.5% Uptime
After Devops: 99.9% Uptime

This concludes our case study for Devops Automation and Devops Best Practices. We hope you enjoyed our article and feel free to contact us if you’re interested in having Gennovacap help you cut cloud costs and achieve scale for growth.

11 Open Source Kubernetes Ci Cd Tools To Improve Your Devops

Reza Piri — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 13:25:44 +0000

ABOUT GENNOVACAP

At Gennovacap, we are Open Source Software advocates and supporters. In fact, we are always experimenting with new open source Kubernetes CI CD tools to improve our devops consulting practice. When deploying large scale software systems, we utilize a variety of Kubernetes CI CD tools to help client scale to the moon.

In this article we’ll outline the benefits, features, and architecture of each tool we’ve utilized. We’ll cover the different types of Kubernetes CI CD tools which includes GitOps, pipelines, delivery systems, and deployment extension tools to manage deployments to your Kubernetes clusters.

If you would like to see a full list of Paid Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery tools that work with Kubernetes check out G2.

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

About Gennovacap
Kubernetes CI CD Prerequisites
Devtron: Software Delivery Workflow for Kubernetes
Skaffold: Easy and Repeatable Kubernetes Development
Flagger: Progressive Delivery Kubernetes Operator
Spinnaker: Open-source, Multi-cloud Continuous Delivery Platform
Werf: Gitops Delivery Tool
Flux: Open And Extensible Continuous Delivery For Kubernetes
Argo CD: Declarative Kubernetes Deployment Tool
Tekton: Cloud Native Pipeline Resource
Jenkins X: Automated CI CD for Kubernetes
Kubevela: Kubernetes CI CD Tool for Modern Applications
Ksonnet: Kubernetes CI CD Tool for multiple Clusters

KUBERNETES CI CD PREREQUISITES

If you have not set up Kubernetes yet, here are some instructions to get you started.

You can also setup Kubernetes clusters with KubeAdmin, Kops, or Kubespray. Once you’ve got Kubernetes deployed and your applications are setup in your version control system, you’re all set to wire up CI CD from your applications to Kubernetes. We will not walk through the Kubernetes setup in this article, but you can join our mailing list to receive technical guides on these topics.

DEVTRON: SOFTWARE DELIVERY WORKFLOW FOR KUBERNETES

Devtron

DESCRIPTION:

Devtron is an open-source release orchestration & Kubernetes CI CD tool. It leverages popular Open-Source tools to provide a No-Code SaaS like experience for Kubernetes.

FEATURES:

No code self-serve DevOps platform
Multi-cloud/Multi-cluster deployment
Built-in SecOps tools and integration
UI-enabled Application debugging dashboard
Enterprise grade security and compliances
Automated Gitops based deployment using argocd

LICENSE:

https://github.com/devtron-labs/devtron/blob/main/LICENSE

KUBERNETES CI CD TOOL ARCHITECTURE:

SKAFFOLD: EASY AND REPEATABLE KUBERNETES DEVELOPMENT

Skaffold

DESCRIPTION:

Skaffold is a command line tool that facilitates continuous delivery for Kubernetes applications. You can iterate on your application source code locally then deploy to local or remote Kubernetes clusters. Skaffold handles the workflow for building, pushing and deploying your application. It also provides building blocks and describes customizations for Kubernetes.

FEATURES:

Blazing fast local development

optimized source-to-deploy: Skaffold detects changes in your source code and handles the pipeline to build, push, and deploy your application automatically with policy based image tagging
continuous feedback: Skaffold automatically aggregates logs from deployed resources and forwards container ports to your local machine

Project portability

share with other developers – Skaffold is the easiest way to share your project with the world: git clone and skaffold run
context aware – use Skaffold profiles, user level config, environment variables and flags to describe differences in environments
Kubernetes CI CD building blocks – use skaffold run end-to-end, or use individual Skaffold phases to build up your CI CD pipeline. skaffold render outputs hydrated Kubernetes manifests that can be used in GitOps workflows.

Pluggable, declarative configuration for your project

skaffold init – Skaffold discovers your files and generates its own config file
multi-component apps – Skaffold supports applications consisting of multiple components
bring your own tools – Skaffold has a pluggable architecture to integrate with any build or deploy tool

Lightweight

client-side only – Skaffold has no cluster-side component, so there is no overhead or maintenance burden
minimal pipeline – Skaffold provides an opinionated, minimal pipeline to keep things simple

LICENSE:

https://github.com/GoogleContainerTools/skaffold/blob/main/LICENSE

KUBERNETES CI CD TOOL ARCHITECTURE:

FLAGGER: PROGRESSIVE DELIVERY KUBERNETES OPERATOR

Flagger

DESCRIPTION:

Flagger is a Kubernetes deployment tool that automates the release process for applications running on Kubernetes. It reduces the risk of introducing a new software version in production by gradually shifting traffic to the new version while measuring metrics and running conformance tests. Progressive delivery Kubernetes operator (Canary, A/B Testing and Blue/Green deployments)

BENEFITS:

Reduce the risk of introducing a new software version in production by gradually shifting traffic to the new version while measuring metrics like HTTP/gRPC request success rate and latency.
Shift and route traffic between app versions using a service mesh like Istio, Linkerd, OSM or AWS App Mesh. Or if a service mesh does not meet your needs, use an Ingress controller like Contour, Gloo, NGINX, Skipper or Traefik.
Besides the builtin metrics checks, you can extend your application analysis with custom metrics and webooks for running acceptance tests, load tests, or any other custom validation.

LICENSE:

https://github.com/fluxcd/flagger/blob/main/LICENSE

KUBERNETES CI CD TOOL ARCHITECTURE:

SPINNAKER: OPEN-SOURCE, MULTI-CLOUD CONTINUOUS DELIVERY PLATFORM ()

Spinnaker

DESCRIPTION:

Spinnaker provides application management and deployment to help you release software changes with high velocity and confidence. Spinnaker is an open-source, multi-cloud continuous delivery platform that combines a powerful and flexible pipeline management system with integrations to the major cloud providers. If you are looking to standardize your release processes and improve quality with this Kubernetes deployment tool, Spinnaker is for you.

BENEFITS:

Create deployment pipelines that run integration and system tests, spin up and down server groups, and monitor your rollouts. Trigger pipelines via git events, Jenkins, Travis CI, Docker, CRON, or other Spinnaker pipelines.
Create and deploy immutable images for faster rollouts, easier rollbacks, and the elimination of hard to debug configuration drift issues. Leverage an immutable infrastructure in the cloud with built-in deployment strategies such as red/black and canary deployments.
Deploy across multiple cloud providers including AWS EC2, Kubernetes, Google Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Google App Engine, Microsoft Azure, Openstack, Cloud Foundry, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, with DC/OS coming soon.

FEATURES:

Role-based Access Control
Chaos Monkey Integration
CI Integrations
CLI for Setup and Admin
Deployment Strategies
Restricted Execution Windows
Manual Judgments
Monitoring Integrations
Notifications
VM Bakery

LICENSE:

https://github.com/spinnaker/spinnaker/blob/master/LICENSE.txt

KUBERNETES CI CD TOOL ARCHITECTURE:

Spinnaker CICD Tools

WERF: GITOPS DELIVERY TOOL

Werf

DESCRIPTION:

Werf is an Open Source CLI tool written in Go, designed to simplify and speed up the delivery of applications. To use it, you need to describe the configuration of your application (in other words, how to build and deploy it to Kubernetes) and store it in a Git repo — the latter acts as a single source of truth. In short, that’s what we call GitOps today.

Werf is not a complete Kubernetes CI/CD tool, but a solution for creating pipelines that can be embedded into any existing CI/CD system. It literally “connects the dots” to bring these practices into your application. We consider it a new generation of high-level CI/CD tools.

BENEFITS:

Werf builds Docker images using Dockerfiles or an alternative fast built-in builder based on the custom syntax. It also deletes unused images from the Docker registry.
Werf deploys your application to Kubernetes using a chart in the Helm-compatible format with handy customizations and improved rollout tracking mechanism, error detection, and log output.

FEATURES:

Full application lifecycle management: build and publish images, deploy an application to Kubernetes, and remove unused images based on policies.
The description of all rules for building and deploying an application (that may have any number of components) is stored in a single Git repository along with the source code (Single Source Of Truth).
Build images using Dockerfiles.
Alternatively, werf provides a custom builder tool with support for custom syntax, Ansible, and incremental rebuilds based on Git history.
Werf supports Helm compatible charts and complex fault-tolerant deployment processes with logging, tracking, early error detection, and annotations to customize the tracking logic of specific resources.
Werf is a CLI tool written in Go. It can be embedded into any existing CI/CD system to implement CI/CD for your application.
Cross-platform development: Linux-based containers can be run on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

LICENSE:

https://github.com/werf/werf/blob/main/LICENSE

KUBERNETES CI CD TOOL ARCHITECTURE:

FLUX: OPEN AND EXTENSIBLE CONTINUOUS DELIVERY FOR KUBERNETES

Flux

DESCRIPTION:

Flux is a tool for keeping Kubernetes clusters in sync with sources of configuration (like Git repositories), and automating updates to configuration when there is new code to deploy.

Flux version 2 (“v2”) is built from the ground up to use Kubernetes’ API extension system, and to integrate with Prometheus and other core components of the Kubernetes ecosystem. In version 2, Flux supports multi-tenancy and support for syncing an arbitrary number of Git repositories, among other long-requested features.

Flux v2 is constructed with the GitOps Toolkit, a set of composable APIs and specialized tools for building Continuous Delivery on top of Kubernetes.

BENEFITS:

Flux and Flagger deploy apps with canaries, feature flags, and A/B rollouts. Flux can also manage any Kubernetes resource. Infrastructure and workload dependency management is built in.
Enables application deployment (CD) and (with the help of Flagger) progressive delivery (PD) through automatic reconciliation. Flux can even push back to Git for you with automated container image updates to Git (image scanning and patching).
Works with your Git providers (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, can even use s3-compatible buckets as a source), all major container registries, and all CI workflow providers.
Kustomize, Helm, RBAC, and policy-driven validation (OPA, Kyverno, admission controllers) so it simply falls into place.
Uses true Kubernetes RBAC via impersonation and supports multiple Git repositories. Multi-cluster infrastructure and apps work out of the box with Cluster API: Flux can use one Kubernetes cluster to manage apps in either the same or other clusters, spin up additional clusters themselves, and manage clusters including lifecycle and fleets.
Provides health assessments, alerting to external systems, and external events handling. Just “git push”, and get notified on Slack and other chat systems.
Flux is a CNCF Incubating project and was categorised as “Adopt” on the CNCF CI/CD Tech Radar (alongside Helm).
We welcome contributors of any kind. The components of Flux are on Kubernetes core controller-runtime, so anyone can contribute and its functionality can be extended very easily.

FEATURES:

Describe the entire desired state of your system in Git. This includes apps, configuration, dashboards, monitoring, and everything else.
Use YAML to enforce conformance to the declared system. You don’t need to run kubectl because all changes are synced automatically.
Everything is controlled through pull requests. Your Git history provides a sequence of transactions, allowing you to recover state from any snapshot.
Declaratively configurable using Custom Resources, state reports in the object’s status and via Kubernetes Events, and integrations with Kubernetes RBAC
Support for e.g. Kustomize, Helm; GitHub, GitLab, Harbor and custom webhooks; notifications to most team communication platforms; and many more.
Easily create a continuous delivery solution with only the components you need, or use the GitOps Toolkit to extend Flux.

LICENSE:

https://github.com/fluxcd/flux2/blob/main/LICENSE

KUBERNETES CI CD TOOL ARCHITECTURE:

ARGO CD: DECLARATIVE KUBERNETES DEPLOYMENT TOOL

Argo

DESCRIPTION:

Argo CD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes.

Benefits/Overview:

FEATURES:

Automated deployment of applications to specified target environments
Support for multiple config management/templating tools (Kustomize, Helm, Ksonnet, Jsonnet, plain-YAML)
Ability to manage and deploy to multiple clusters
SSO Integration (OIDC, OAuth2, LDAP, SAML 2.0, GitHub, GitLab, Microsoft, LinkedIn)
Multi-tenancy and RBAC policies for authorization
Rollback/Roll-anywhere to any application configuration committed in Git repository
Health status analysis of application resources
Automated configuration drift detection and visualization
Automated or manual syncing of applications to its desired state
Web UI which provides real-time view of application activity
CLI for automation and CI integration
Webhook integration (GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab)
Access tokens for automation
PreSync, Sync, PostSync hooks to support complex application rollouts (e.g.blue/green & canary upgrades)
Audit trails for application events and API calls
Prometheus metrics
Parameter overrides for overriding ksonnet/helm parameters in Git

LICENSE:

https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/blob/master/LICENSE

KUBERNETES CI CD TOOL ARCHITECTURE:

TEKTON: CLOUD NATIVE PIPELINE RESOURCE

Tekton

DESCRIPTION:

The Tekton Pipelines project provides k8s-style resources for declaring CI/CD-style pipelines.

FEATURES:

Run on Kubernetes
Have Kubernetes clusters as a first class type
Use containers as their building blocks
One Pipeline can be used to deploy to any k8s cluster
The Tasks which make up a Pipeline can easily be run in isolation
Resources such as git repos can easily be swapped between runs
The concept of typed resources means that for a resource such as an Image, implementations can easily be swapped out (e.g. building with kaniko v.s. buildkit)

LICENSE:

https://github.com/tektoncd/pipeline/blob/main/LICENSE

KUBERNETES CI CD TOOL ARCHITECTURE:

JENKINS X: AUTOMATED CI CD FOR KUBERNETES

Jenkins

DESCRIPTION:

Jenkins X is an automated Kuberentes deployment tool with Preview Environments on Pull Requests using Tekton, Knative, Lighthouse, Skaffold and Helm. It is a Kubernetes deployment tool for modern cloud applications. Jenkins X automates and accelerates Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery for developers on the cloud, so they can focus on building awesome software.

Embracing popular open source projects Jenkins X automates the setup and management to provide an integrated Cloud Native solution teams can use to develop better software faster and more reliably that traditional non cloud solutions.

BENEFITS/OVERVIEW:

FEATURES:

Jenkins X aims to use the cloud well, Kubernetes to host the core services, storage buckets for long term storage, container registries and hosted serivces like secrets managers. All of this needs to be created and managed. Jenkins X defers to Terraform to setup and manage the Cloud infrastructure needed by Jenkins X.
Using GitOps means familiar processes can be followed when making any change to the cluster, using reviews, automation, traceability and rollbacks to give better control over consuming changes.
Jenkins X GitOps works with External Secrets to provide an integrated experience so your secrets source of truth is a secrets manager and the values are replicated into the cluster when needed.
By default Jenkins X ships with Tekton for a clean declarative cloud native way to describe pipelines. Combined with Lighthouse Jenkins X makes it easy to inherit versioned shared pipeline steps via Git and a simple syntax providing flexibility and easy maintenance.
With the ever growing number of microservices needing automation, Jenkins X provides the ability to interact with pipelines via comments on pull requests.
Along with ChatOps mentioned above Jenkins X aims to help developers have a consistent way of working with their microservices, using a CLI or GUI developers can leverage proven approaches recomended by the Accelerate book.

LICENSE:

https://github.com/jenkins-x/jx/blob/main/LICENSE

KUBERNETES CI CD TOOL ARCHITECTURE:

KUBEVELA: KUBERNETES CI CD TOOL FOR MODERN APPLICATIONS

Kubevela

DESCRIPTION:

KubeVela is a modern application delivery platform that makes deploying and operating applications across today’s hybrid, multi-cloud environments easier, faster and more reliable. KubeVela is infrastructure agnostic, programmable, yet most importantly, application-centric.

FEATURES:

KubeVela introduces Open Application Model (OAM) as the consistent yet higher level API to capture and render a full deployment of microservices on top of hybrid environments. Placement strategy, traffic shifting and rolling update are declared at application level. No infrastructure level concern, simply deploy.
KubeVela models application delivery as DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) and expresses it with CUE – a modern data configuration language. This allows you to design application deployment steps per needs and orchestrate them in a programmable approach. No restrictions, natively extensible.
KubeVela works as an application delivery control plane that is fully decoupled from runtime infrastructure. It can deploy any workload types including containers, cloud services, databases, or even VM instances to any cloud or Kubernetes cluster, following the workflow designed by you.

LICENSE:

https://github.com/oam-dev/kubevela/blob/master/LICENSE

KUBERNETES CI CD TOOL ARCHITECTURE:

KSONNET: KUBERNETES CI CD TOOL FOR MULTIPLE CLUSTERS

KSonnet

DESCRIPTION:

Built on the JSON templating language Jsonnet, ksonnet provides an organizational structure and specialized features for managing configurations across different clusters and environments.

BENEFITS:

Save time by minimizing duplicate code and concisely describe configurations with a built-in Jsonnet library for Kubernetes.
Customize prototypes to meet your needs, and scale your application with a flexible framework.
Seamlessly deploy across environments and share version controlled configurations across teams as the single source of truth.

FEATURES:

Easily apply a manifest across multiple cluster environments
Track configurations with version control in order to reliably manage cluster states
Reuse common patterns from existing configurations or through an external registry
Use Jsonnet with the Kubernetes-aware Jsonnet library, ksonnet-lib, to write simplified manifests
See what’s different from what running on a cluster from your configurations
Leverage existing charts with all the features behind ksonnet

LICENSE:

https://github.com/ksonnet/ksonnet/blob/master/LICENSE

KUBERNETES CI CD TOOL ARCHITECTURE:

How To Become A Certified AWS Devops Engineer

Reza Piri — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 22:15:51 +0000

This article covers the devops process, the role of devops engineers, and the skills required to become an AWS Certified devops engineer.

SUMMARY

This article covers the devops process, the role of devops engineers, and the skills required to become an AWS Certified devops engineer.

Summary
What is Devops?
What is a Devops Engineer?
What Are The Job Responsibilities of a Devops Engineer?
Devops Engineer Salary
AWS Devops Services
Useful Devops Tools
Recommended AWS Knowledge
AWS Certified Devops Engineer Exam
AWS Devops Abilities Validated by the Certification
Careers as AWS Devops Engineer

WHAT IS DEVOPS?

In the development lifecycle developers, sysadmins, and programmers usually work in different silos. Devops is a philosophy that seeks to bridge the gap between each of these roles. It describes a set of operations in which the product development lifecycle works together to make the procedure faster, automated, and stable. This leads to a shortened lead time between fixes, and fewer software failures. Above all, devops best practices allow businesses to scale up fast, reduce operation costs, and improve application reliability. In this article you will learn what it takes to become a Certified AWS Devops Engineer.

WHAT IS A DEVOPS ENGINEER?

Devops engineers are experienced IT professionals who work with developers, QA professionals, and IT operations. Additionally, they are heavily involved in the software development lifecycle, working with automation tools, CI/CD, application software, and cloud infrastructure. Lastly, they oversee code releases, facilitate IT changes, and make sure the IT environment runs smoothly.

WHAT ARE THE JOB RESPONSIBILITIES OF A DEVOPS ENGINEER?

The following are some expected roles, responsibilities, and skills that is expected from a Devops Engineer:

Deploy, automate, maintain, and manage the application production system
Ensure higher levels of availability, scalability, and performance of application code and infrastructure
Create strategies to ensure compliance of the process with Devops principles
Perform system troubleshooting and problem-solving across platform and application domains
Ability to manage project effectively through open, standards-based platforms
Analyze, design and evaluate automation scripts & systems Ensure critical resolution of system issues by using the best cloud security solutions services
Provide support to cloud architects for the facility of operation and migration services to ensure availability and delivery of cloud computing services

DEVOPS ENGINEER SALARY

Studying to become an AWS devops engineer has a huge payout once you get certified. The average salary for a DevOps Engineer in US is $140,000. The additional cash compensation for a DevOps Engineer in US is $15,291. The total compensation for a DevOps Engineer in US is $140,766. This salary will depend on how many years of experience, so if you’re new to devops engineering don’t expect this to be your starting salary.

AWS DEVOPS SERVICES

If you’re interested in transforming your engineering career into devops, you should definitely have some experience with cloud services like AWS. The AWS cloud consists of two kinds of services: Compute services (EC2, S3, DNS, Route 53) and Infrastructure Services (VPC, Lambda, ELB). AWS offers a plethora of devops related tools that engineers employ when building automation in the cloud. AWS Devops tools automate manual tasks, help teams manage complex environments at scale, and keep engineers in control of the high velocity that is enabled by Devops. Every engineer should be familiar with all AWS Devops tools. To get current on these tools and services read up on the following AWS Devops Services:

Continuous Delivery and Continuous Integration
Code Pipelines
Codebuild
Code Deploy
Codestar
Microservices
Elastic Container Service
Lambda
Infrastructure as code
Cloud Formation
Ops Work
Systems Manager
Config
Monitoring and logging
Cloudwatch
X-Ray
Cloudtrail
Platform as a service
Elastic Beanstalk
Version Control
Code Commit

USEFUL DEVOPS TOOLS

As you can see, there are many powerful set of tools for automating devops and building systems that improve time to market. However, there are other devops tools outside of AWS that great engineers use in conjunction with cloud services. To accelerate into being a great devops engineer, one should be familiar with these tools too:

Continuous Delivery and Continuous Integration:
Jenkins
Vagrant
Ansible
Puppet
Containers:
Docker
Kubernetes
Monitoring and alerting:
SignalFX
Splunk
Raygun

RECOMMENDED AWS KNOWLEDGE

It is recommended to have some experience with AWS cloud services before you take the AWS Certified Devops Engineer Exam. If you have this experience, passing the AWS Devops exam will be much easier. Here is some base requirements that will assist in leveling up with the AWS Certification:

2 or more years of experience provisioning, operating, and managing AWS environments
Be able to code in at least one high-level programming language
Build highly automated infrastructures
Administer operating systems
Understand modern development and operations processes and methodologies

AWS CERTIFIED DEVOPS ENGINEER EXAM

The AWS exam costs $300. It is possible to use a discount code provided by the different course providers in order to reduce this cost. Additionally, if you need a classroom environment to learn, you can sign up for paid AWS training course. However, if paid training cost is concern, AWS offers free online courses for all levels. The Certification Track includes short videos on a wide range of topics to assist the student in aws certification questions answers. The AWS Certified Devops Professional exam is intended for individuals who perform a devops role with two or more years of experience provisioning, operating, and managing AWS Devops environments.

AWS DEVOPS ABILITIES VALIDATED BY THE CERTIFICATION

Taking the AWS Certified Devops Engineer exam demonstrates the following skills:

Implement and manage continuous delivery systems and methodologies on AWS
Implement and automate security controls, governance processes, and compliance validation
Define and deploy monitoring, metrics, and logging systems on AWS
Implement systems that are highly available, scalable, and self-healing on the AWS Devops platform
Design, manage, and maintain tools to automate operational processes

CAREERS AS AWS DEVOPS ENGINEER

If you obtain an AWS certification for Devops Professionals you will be a cut above the rest. Passing the exams is highly coveted by a lot of professional services organizations and tech companies. With a lot of enterprise companies moving to the cloud from on premise data centers, there is a high demand for certified AWS engineers everywhere. Devops consulting firms like Gennovacap are always looking for AWS Devops Engineers to employ cost savings for their clients using cutting edge AWS Devops strategies.

Increase Developer Happiness with Devops Services and Managed IT Services

Reza Piri — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 14:07:36 +0000

Summary

By implementing a world class devops program with managed IT services, your developers will become a profit center. They will ship better software, faster.

About Us

Over the past 10 years, we've had the honor and privilege of working with some truly inspiring people. These professionals have made it their personal mission in life to positively impact others through technology and software solutions. Gennovacap’s team has been a part of this journey, shipping software for technology companies. Our team of engineers built out a world class devops consulting firm based on a set of market validated devops best practices.

Devops Services + Managed IT Services = Developer Happiness

We’ve seen tech companies become successful and consequently hit growing pains because their devops strategies lacked depth and features. Their ability to scale was limited only by their ability to quickly release features. However, once they implemented a fundamental devops program, they were able to rocket their product to the moon.

Furthermore, we’ve seen companies who implement amazing devops programs only to leave their software engineers fixing Kubernetes crashes. As a result, it’s advantageous to add managed IT services with a site reliability engineer after implementing the devops program.

By implementing a world class devops program with managed IT services, your developers will become a profit center. They will ship better software, faster.

Benefits of Devops Services

Transform Operations

The benefits of great devops services are real and measurable. Companies that incorporate our devops best practices get more done, period. Devops focused organizations can deliver quality products with speed, functionality, and innovation. Here are some devops stats:

63% experience improvement in the quality of their software deployments
63% release new software more frequently
55% notice improved cooperation and collaboration
38% report a higher quality of code production

Make Developers Happier

There is enormous waste in a typical IT environment. IT can be a huge productivity killer for your engineering team:

Developers waiting for other engineers
Developers waiting on other machines
Developers stuck repeatedly with the same IT issues

Developers want to be productive. They want to spend time writing new features, but are left churning over IT issues causing frustration and unhappiness. When developers get rid of managed IT infrastructure, they can spend that time adding value to the organization and everyone benefits.

Automate Business

Automated deployments and standardized production environments, make feature releases and products more predictable. Automation also frees people from routine repetitive tasks to focus on higher value things.

Benefits of Managed IT Services

Reduced Costs

By outsourcing your IT to a managed IT services company, you control and reduce costly network maintenance staff. Staffing an IT department is expensive and unnecessary for businesses with simple networks. Outsourcing to a managed IT services provider like Gennovacap can save you thousands each year.

Fast Response

With Managed IT Services you can expect quick response times through enterprise-level monitoring (SLA’s). Additionally, you’ll receive fast assistance for spinning cloud services up or down. Gennovacap’s SRE’s can access, monitor and repair any network issues within minutes of each incident.

Operational Scalability

Managed IT service providers offer a variety of managed IT options that scale with your business. Occasionally, managed IT providers offer payment plans, enabling your business to focus on growth. The best managed IT service providers offer a combined solution, which produces more cost savings. These combined solutions may include security protection, network monitoring or the setup of a new service area.

How can Gennovacap Help My Company?

Gennovacap’s Devops Consulting practice is the bedrock of modern application development. Our devops team researches infrastructure and environments to build custom processes using modern tools that complement other frameworks. We also automate cloud infrastructure and processes while ensuring continuous delivery and continuous integration. Our DevOps services and DevOps best practices will bring any product to market faster and at a lower cost.

Managing IT is expensive and our Managed Cloud Services team is here to help. We can guide and provide support for your engineering team. Our SRE’s will monitor your network, upgrade infrastructure, curb cloud expenses, and keep your cloud services running 24/7/365.

Accelerate Time to Market

We can accelerate your time to market through a top tier devops program. Through the use of containers, infrastructure as code, and continuous integration and continuous delivery systems- we will help your engineering team release code faster.

Cost Control

Depending on the scope, setting up a devops program only takes a few months. With proper scoping and assessments, we can accurately estimate cloud spend. Once your devops program is in place, our month to month contracts are straightforward and easy to navigate. Our SRE’s will consistently monitor your cloud spend and work with our devops engineers to optimize your costs.

Training

We will also document the entire playbook and runbook into a wiki. In the wiki we will include:

Architecture Designs
Component configuration
CLI with local ops development environment
Terraform commands
Developer Tools
How to install
Usage commands
Troubleshooting issues
CI/CD Process

Additionally, we will spend 30-45 days training your engineering team on how to use Kubernetes, manage deployments, and educate them on the infrastructure.

Incident Response

After the program is in place, we will embed a site reliability engineer with your team to perform the following tasks:

Weekly maintenance of cloud systems
Support team on weekly deployments
Day-to-day management of your infrastructure
On-demand provisioning for common cloud resources
Scheduled maintenance of OS updates and patches, backup policies, service-level backups, and cross-region replication.

Forem: Reza Piri

Top DevSecOps Tools of 2021

INTRODUCTION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHAT IS DEVSECOPS?

BENEFITS OF DEVSECOPS TOOLS

REDUCING EXPENSES

SECURITY, MONITORING AND DEPLOYMENT CHECKS FROM THE BEGINNING

SUPPORTING TRANSPARENCY FROM THE START OF DEPLOYMENT "Supporting-transparency-from-the-start-of-deployment">

SECURE BY DESIGN

ABILITY TO MEASURE

FASTER SPEED OF RECOVERY

BEST DEVSECOPS TOOLS OF 2021

OPEN SOURCE DEVSECOPS TOOLS

CONCLUSION

DevOps Consultant Jobs and Where to Find Them

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEVOPS CONSULTANT VERSUS DEVOPS ENGINEER

WHAT DO DEVOPS CONSULTANTS DO?

WHAT ARE THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF DEVOPS CONSULTANTS?

HOW MUCH DO DEVOPS CONSULTANTS MAKE?

TOP 10 DEVOPS CONSULTANT JOB BOARDS

SUMMARY

BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF OUTSOURCING DEVOPS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHAT IS DEVOPS OUTSOURCING?

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM DEVOPS OUTSOURCING

BENEFITS OF OUTSOURCING DEVOPS

FASTER DEVELOPMENT

ACCESS TO A POOL OF DEVOPS EXPERTS

ENHANCED SECURITY PRACTICES

INCREASED EFFICIENCY

IMPROVED QUALITY AND FLEXIBILITY

CHALLENGES OF OUTSOURCING DEVOPS

RESTRUCTURE OF WORK CULTURE

DEMANDS STRONG TEAMWORK

REQUIRES EXPERTISE

INITIALLY TAKES TIME

SUMMARY

HOW CAN GENNOVACAP HELP MY COMPANY?

Cloud Migration Benefits and Challenges

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS CLOUD MIGRATION?

TYPES OF CLOUD MIGRATION

SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE (SAAS)

PLATFORM AS A SERVICE (PAAS)

INFRASTRUCTURE AS A SERVICE (IAAS)

WHAT TOOLS ARE USED IN CLOUD MIGRATION?

AWS CLOUD MIGRATION TOOLS

AZURE MIGRATION TOOL

CORENT SURPASS CLOUD MIGRATION

CLOUDHEALTH CLOUD MIGRATION BY VMWARE

DENSIFY

CARBONITE

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF CLOUD MIGRATION?

OPTIMIZED COSTS

FLEXIBILITY FOR EMPLOYEES

SCALABILITY

ENHANCED DATA SECURITY

FASTER DEPLOYMENT

BUILT-IN BACKUP AND RECOVERY CAPABILITIES

WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES OF CLOUD MIGRATION?

INTEGRATION STRATEGY

DATA SECURITY MANAGEMENT

PROPER EMPLOYMENT TRAINING

POTENTIAL AMBIGUOUS COSTS

HOW CAN GENNOVACAP HELP MY COMPANY?

The Best Infrastructure as Code Tools For 2021

SUMMARY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LEGACY IT INFRASTRUCTURE

WHAT IS INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE?

MANAGING INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE

WHAT IS CODE CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT?

PUPPET

SALTSTACK

CHEF

WHAT ARE INFRASTRUCTURE AS CODE TOOLS?

AWS CLOUDFORMATION

GOOGLE CLOUD DEPLOYMENT MANAGER